The Unauthorized Randy “Duke” Cunningham Page

A new book is out on the Cunningham Scandal called The Wrong Stuff by U-T/Copley Press reporters Marcus Stern, Jerry Kammer, Dean Calbreath, & George E. Condon Jr.

The book is at Amazon.com.

There's a review by Logan Jenkins

A similar book by AP reporter Seth Hetthena will come out in July 2007 called Feasting on the Spoils (also at Amazon.com)

Thanks a lot Dan, NOT! I just spent 4 hours crawled up under my desk in the infamous Jim Baker 'fetal position', just knowing that your post of "The Wrong Stuff" was my biography! Egads, I was relieved when Evelyn read it to me for the fourth time, only to realize it was about Cunningham afterall.
Life is tough when we 'work with what we have' (as 'cruel shoes' put it).

Please try to be more careful with the titles of your posts from now on. I'm "frag-shy" for obvious reasons...
RazMaTaz

''We 'work with what we have'' Correct Raz. I am also happy that Evelyn is reading English so well these days.

I am going to read ''Wrong Stuff." Thanks for the heads up Dan.

I'm giving odds that on his way out Bush will pardon Cunningham and Libby.

Best, p

Raz they play the long game. In the short game the party will take some @!#$, it a year no one will know or care.

Best to you.

. . . in a year, no one will remember or care.

(for a version with images, follow this link: http://blogs.sun.com/DanX/entry/the_wrong_stuff )

Tonight I went to a booksigning by Marcus Stern, coauthor of The Wrong Stuff—a book about imprisoned Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. It was in a cute independent bookshop "The Book Works" in Del Mar, California.

I take special interest in the book for two reasons: he was my congressman (until a year and a half ago) and 11 years ago I started a website, http://dukecunningham.org/, on the corrupt gentleman (Summer 1996). He's always been a kind of "Trailer Trash" of Congress, but well-liked because of his Vietnam war record. It's always been known that he was stupid, made silly remarks, and took in gobs of campaign contributions in exchange for special "earmark" funding to contributing defense contractors. What wasn't known until Marcus Stern and others found out was the direct bribes he also took from defense contractors. In today's muddled thinking it's somehow OK to take bribes as campaign contributions, but wrong as direct bribes. That's the line Duke Cunningham crossed

Here's some notes I took from Marcus Stern's talk:

• Stern basically stumbled onto the bribe. He was investigating why Cunningham took a trip to Saudi Arabia with some shady characters (the answer is still not known today). He found a suspicious sale of his Del Mar home to a shill corporation owned by a defense contractor that received funding from his appropriations committee. The home was bought for more than it was worth (over $700K) and sold at a loss several months later (at a time when the real estate market was hot in San Diego).

• The "Bribe Menu" was not recognized as such by FBI searching his yacht the "Dukestir" (formerly the "Buoy Toy"). They passed it up twice. Defense contractor Mitch Wade, however, was cooperating with authorities (to save himself) and he or his team recognized the note for what it was—a menu of bribe prices and appropriations.

• Cunningham at his sentencing said he will atone for life for what he did. A jailer at Butner Federal Prison said Cunningham, shortly after sentencing, really ramrodded everyone for what they did to him and said it was unjust.

• Marcus stays that San Diego's former U.S. Attorney, Carol Lam, was targeted for firing before the Cunningham scandal. She had little direct role in the investigation. However, the scandal probably fired the final trigger in her leaving

• Nancy Cunningham, his wife, thinks Bush will pardon Cunningham (I personally doubt this though)

• Congressional Democrats talked tough during the last (2006) campaign and during swearing-in, but are not really interested in reforming earmark-abuse. They like to use it for themselves: trading earmarked appropriations for campaign contributions. An example is California Senator Feinsteins's self-dealing earmarks with her husband's company. A story on this is in the worksstay tuned.

• Marcus said earmarks (disguised Congressional appropriations directed to a specific company) are still needed by both Demoratic and Republican Members of Congressthey need it to run their expensive campaigns. Congressmembers in safe seats give contributions to others to become more-powerful committee chairs.

• Apparently court documents have just been unsealed about Cunningham contributor (sugar daddy) Kontogiannis, so two of the co-authors couldn't make the book signing

• Note by Marcus Stern Marcus signed by book and said my website, http://dukecunningham.org/ was more useful than the Wikipedia article and he used it all the time.

Dan we are in your debt. Thanks for all of the work that you have done on this.

Best, p

When they interviewed Little Richard regarding his impact on the life and death of Jimi Hendrix, he responded "What did I do wrong????"

Today, on this Senior Fleet Ensign's 59th birthday, among other things, my girlfriend presented to me a brand spanking new hardbound copy of "The Wrong Stuff". (true story)

Raz 'where did I go wrong' MaTaz

Well, Lynn, actually the fault with the black shi7 hot flight suits could be laid to Cunningham himself. I was present and heard his state that the Black Flight Suits of VF-96 were of his own idea and design.

Glad to see you post.

For the record, he also said that the movie, "Right Stuff" was about him.

Everything was "all about him" regardless of reality.

Exactly . . .

What did you do Raz, run him off also?

We simply do not get anyone to play with anymore.

For the record, he also said that the movie, "Right Stuff" was about him.>>

Don't you mean "Top Gun"? no way the Right Stuff even resembled anything he did since that was about the astronaut progam and Chuck Yeager.

I do know he claimed TG was about him.

Yes, I meant Top Gun.

I just finished reading "The Wrong Stuff." Excellent book. Minor errors in telling the Vietnam air war stuff, but nothing staggering.

The book really takes off when it reviews the entire sorted matter and the relevance of the players . . . and how they played it.

One thing that I really liked about the book was that it cut Nancy no slack. The last time that I was with them socially, in 1999, the entire night was spent with her bitching about the cost of his public service, the costs of campaigning and what she and the girls were doing without..

She nagged him right into prison.

Raz, your reading will speed up if you stop moving your lips while reading.

Talk about your wrong stuff.

The Photo on the Night Stand

After a long night of making love, he notices a photo of a man in a Naval Ensign's uniform on her night stand by the bed.

He begins to worry... "Is this your husband?" he nervously asks.

"No, silly," she replies, snuggling up to him.

"Your boyfriend, then?" he continues.

"No, not at all," she says, nibbling away at his ear.

"Is it your dad or your brother?" he inquires, hoping to be reassured.

"No, no, no! You are so hot when you're jealous!" she answers.

"Well, who in the hell is the Ensign, then?" he demands.

"That's me before the surgery

Raz, tell me it ain't so.

<<
Raz, your reading will speed up if you stop moving your lips while reading>>

Paul you are so cruel....You must know that as an Ensign, Raz is NOT an accomplished ventriloquist, so he always moves his lips when he reads out loud to himself. It helps him understand the words.

"Well, who in the hell is the Ensign, then?" he demands.

"That's me before the surgery

Raz, tell me it ain't so.>>

I saw Raz ma Taz on the Geraldo show. Geraldo was interviewing former men who had sex changes and Raz was on the program as how to become a blonde:

Geraldo was discussing the details, and asked what was the most difficult part of the sex change.

Raz said, "As you know, there are several major operations we have to go through".

Geraldo, starting to sweat said...."Yes, I can imagine."

And the blonde said..."but the hardest operation I had to go thru to change from a man to a blonde woman....



.......was getting half my brain removed".


I mean how many times have you heard a blonde say "I have a half a mind to... (do whatever) "???

You hang in there Raz!

You know what really got me, and the book confirmed it, that the stupid b@st@rd simply deposited the checks in his Union Bank account in San Diego and then did not pay taxes on the money.

I know a guy who is doing Fed Time for bank fraud. He stole a pile of money. But he declared and paid taxes on every damb dime. They got him for grand thieft, they did not get him for tax fraud. He is doing 5 years, had they gotten him on tax fraud also, he would be doing 20.

As soon as he is out and off parole, I expect to get a Christmas card from him in the Bahamas living there with all his tax paid money.

But Cunningham was as dumb as a bag of rocks.

Scary thought for you: In "The Wrong Stuff" they described how dirty the hot tub water was aboard the DukeStir; Randy having insisted on filling it by pumping it directly from the Potomic, and never changing it?

All I can say is, thank gawd the DukeStir was not berthed outside the base in Olongapo. Now THAT would be a Hot Tub gone bad!
(If you haven't been there, you wouldn't understand)
Raz 'A Flush Beats a Full House Everytime' MaTaz

Potomic water in the hot tub. Wonder all the women did not come down with every infection known to man.

Damb, I wish that I could have played @!#$ with you in the game Raz. I would have loved having you be betting with a flush! Damb, where are the fish when I was playing @!#$ aboard the boat!

I recall a guy that mis-read his hand for a straight one time he had something like 4-5-7-8-9. It was doubly fun taking is money when he realized his screw up.

>>thank gawd the DukeStir was not berthed outside the base in Olongapo. Now THAT would be a Hot Tub gone bad! <<

Pretty bad visual and olfactory scenario there! A 'Po water hot tub? Gack! Big time GACK!

Re the IRS . . . what is Cunningham's status with the IRS? Obviously, he didn't pay taxes on his bribery income. And he is doing hard time for accepting bribes, not tax evasion, right?

Anybody know what his current tax fraud relationship and status is with the IRS?

Yeah, the judge nailed him for $1.8 million in back taxes and the tax fraud is part of the sentence.

His monthy $1,500 deduction from his retirements goes to the bill. Obviously, he will never pay it off.

Raz, sorry. I never heard that one about a flush. Apologize. But I always loved Ensign money in a @!#$ game . . . except one RIO that I recall. He had been a Las Vegas dealer. We never let him deal, who know what side fo the deck that he would be dealing from!, but he certainly knew the math of @!#$ playing!

But you watch it, we'll have you re-loading wax in Cunningham's lava lamp.

@!#$ = Card