The Washington Post is reporting that Wilkes, Wade, and a limo company would provide Cunningham and other pols with prostitutes in exchange for federal contracts. This link is exactly what makes the case relevant, not the fact the Republican moralizers were sleeping with hookers outside of their marriages. As I said yesterday, what we need to see now is which Republican congressmen worked to give contracts to MZM, ADCS, and now Shirlington. The full extent of Cunningham, Wilkes, and Wade’s bribery schemes is not yet known; more importantly, we have yet to find out all of the Republicans who were invovled in it. Let’s hope the truth continues to trickle out.
In recent weeks, investigators have focused on possible dealings between Christopher D. Baker, president of Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., and Brent R. Wilkes, a San Diego businessman who is under investigation for bribing Cunningham in return for millions of dollars in federal contracts, said one source, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Baker has a criminal record and has experienced financial difficulties, public records show. Last fall, his company was awarded a $21 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide transportation, including limo service for senior officials. Baker and his lawyer declined to comment yesterday.
The Cunningham investigation’s latest twist came after Mitchell J. Wade, a defense contractor who has admitted bribing the former congressman, told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had an arrangement with at least one escort service, one source said. Wade said limos would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and bring them to suites Wilkes maintained at the Watergate Hotel and the Westin Grand in Washington, the source said.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:05 am
[…] A day late, but the GOP’s efforts to treat the American citizenry like cheap whores is dead, alongside their tax hike that would have hit both big oil and small businesses. The Republicans in Congress tried to placate an angry public that’s been getting killed at the pump for a year with a little blood money and America saw right through it. Treating constituents like prostitutes is never a good idea guys - well unless you’re Duke Cunningham and they are prostitutes. […]
May 5th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
[…] Porter Goss’s snap resignation from his role as Director of the CIA has nothing to do with his job as DCI. It’s about his connection to Duke Cunningham, Brent Wilkes, and Mitchell Wade and their sex for contracts ring that has come to light over the last week. Goss has ostensibly been connected to a ring of prostitution, booze, and gambling that has been organized by Wilkes and Wade, defense contractors, for GOP Congressmen. The half-dozen congressmen that are believed to be connected to the controversy have accepted these gratuities as quid pro quo for defense contracts. No doubt it may soon come to light that Goss, as a congressman from 1988-2005, direct defense spending to benefit his friends. […]