I think scandals are lacking these days. Scandals in the Bush administration just don’t have the same pop as those we suffered through during the Clinton years. Sure, there’s been plenty of scandal, but how much of it has made it onto Page Six and E! Hollywood Story? Not much. And really, how can we expect people to keep track of a scandal that can’t be condensed into a twenty second blurb by Ryan Seacrest about who’s schtupping who? It’s just not going to happen.

It’s not surprising that some of us are getting fatigued with the never-ending train of Republican scandals. Who’s lying us into which war? Who’s bribing who with what Indian casino money? Who’s taking illegal trips to which resorts? Who was it that leaked which CIA agent’s identity to which journalist? How many meetings has the VP had with which industry officials to set what policy? Which old man did Cheney shoot in the face? The fact is, there are just way too many Republican scandals to keep track of. Lord knows Christy Hardin Smith is barely holding on. And Josh Marshall? The man is so overworked he had to start a subsidiary blog just to cover all the sex-free scandals popping out of the GOP woodwork.

Just when the monotony of Republican corruption and malfeasance couldn’t get any more dull, wham! Deus ex machina! A SEX SCANDAL!

CALBREATH [San Diego Union Tribune]: We and a number of other papers have been on this for about six months or so. We have all been looking for the break in this and the Wall Street Journal found it, which is the confirmation that the feds were actually looking at this. For the past six months there we have been hearing a lot of rumors that not only the Congressman Cunningham but as many as a half dozen other Congressmen may have been involved in this. And we’ve also been hearing about the limousine service that Brent Wilkes used to bring prostitutes to the Watergate hotel and the Grand Westin in Washington.

SCARBOROUGH: Your sources are telling you that he used these limousines to bring prostitutes to the hotel. Also, apparently, he is cooperating with investigators. Is there a possibility that this black book with information may be turned over to the FBI and other high ranking Republican congressmen could be in big trouble?

CALBREATH: Well now, Mitchell Wade is cooperating with the investigators, but the guy who supposedly has the black book, Brent Wilkes he is hanging tough. He is so far not cooperating. I think that he is going to hang tough until he is indicted. So, I think it will be a while before other names come out. Like I say, the rumor mill is alive with names. The rumor mill is alive with at least half dozen names. Congressman Cunningham in today’s story in the Wall Street Journal that is really the first solid confirmation we have gotten of an eyewitness report.

Paying attention yet? What’s more, Justin Rood is reporting that this ring of hookers for pols has been in existence for fifteen orgasmic years. Beyond Congress the CIA’s Executive Director, Kyle Foggo and CIA Director Porter Goss have been connected to the Wilkes sex parties. Georgia10 points out the irony of Goss being implicated in this sex scandal.

Is the CIA Director involved in a D.C. prostitution ring? (It’s so surreal just to type that question out). In refusing to investigate the CIA leak case, Goss famously proclaimed “Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I’ll have an investigation.”

Goss, it appears, is a stickler for physical evidence. Will pictures do? Hotel logs? Eyewitness identification by the prostitutes themselves?

It’ll be curious to see the facts unfold in this case. Right now all signs point towards the reality that no one wants to admit: Republicans have sex.

In all seriousness, though, I couldn’t care less about a Republican sex scandal. Hypocrisy and false moralizations are nothing new for the GOP. If the Clinton era proved nothing else, it’s that sex scandals are wholly irrelevant to politics. I didn’t give a shit about a blue dress then and I don’t care to see the itemized tax returns from high-end DC hookers proving Republican office holders had sex with them, with one notable exception: if these prostitutes were used as quid pro quo for votes on legislation.

Ken Silverstein writes in Harper’s blog:

The Wall Street Journal reported today that indicted former California Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham may not have limited his good times to partying on a rented yacht. It turns out the FBI is currently investigating two defense contractors who allegedly provided Cunningham with free limousine service, free stays at hotel suites at the Watergate and the Westin Grand, and free prostitutes.

The two defense contractors who allegedly bribed Cunningham, said the Journal, were Brent Wilkes, the founder of ADCS Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc.; both firms profited greatly from their connections with Cunningham. The Journal also suggested that other lawmakers might be implicated.

Cunningham was bribed by defense contractors and his pay-off included free sex with prostitutes. Or, rather, the defense contractors paid the hookers. Hookers are never free. Someone always pays.

If Wilkes and Wade provided the same services to other congressmen (I assume they’re all men, but that’s a big assumption in the uber-closeted world of Washington), then we will have a scandal worth talking about. Cunningham is already gone, but Goss, Foggo, and conceivably half a dozen other congressmen received sex for votes. We need to find out who they are and what their voting records are on legislation that benefitted ADCS and MZM.

This isn’t going to be important because it involves sex, but because it is another major indictment of the Republican culture of corruption.