Pennies and Hookers from Heaven

Wade, who is cooperating with the authorities, has told the F.B.I. that Wilkes kept hospitality suites in the Watergate Hotel and Westin Grand in order to entertain legislators and government officials with evenings of poker, cigars, and, on occasion, for Cunningham, prostitutes.

Vanity Fair

The exploits of Duke Cunningham and his cronies continue to fray nerves in the federal government and particularly in the Republican party. It seems that quite a few people are spilling the beans on what's been going on inside the secretive walls of the Defense Department. And you thought government service was boring and didn't pay well? Some thoughts from the inimitable James Wolcott:

Now the mystery is over and we--and I--know what the relevance of the term "Honduran hookers" is. Unless of course they weren't actually hookers, simply overenthusiastic hostesses for Washington visitors. Perhaps some forthcoming trial or two will help clarify matters.

I won't give away any of the other sordid details, except to note that the piggish greed and gobbling corruption of "Duke" Cunningham and crew detailed in Judy Bachrach's piece go beyond Gilded Age excesses into La Grande Bouffe.

The Vanity Fair piece is a doozy and should provide you with many hours of reading (and re-reading) pleasure. You want to talk about a culture of corruption? Perhaps we shouldn't be looking at the RNC so much as the House Military Appropriations committee. What the candidates for office have been up to seems to be nothing compared to the highjinks of those who already hold elected office and have wrangled themselves seats on the really powerful committees who control the pursestrings.

Oh, and by the way.... yes. It was *your* tax dollars paying for the Honduran hookers. I understand that next year's tax returns will have a box you can check requesting a voucher for a free session with one of them in return for your costs.