Cunningham - Lessons Learned
The North County Times gives its readers a run down of the "lesson learned" from Randy "Duke" Cunningham's criminal indictment and conviction.
Lesson 1 - Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
"[Cunningham's] decade-and-a-half-long public life was that of a flag-waving, Reagan-like conservative who wielded influence and brought home millions in government contracts through his positions on powerful appropriations and intelligence committees.
But since 2001, from what is now known, his private life was all about arranging and taking bribes, laundering the money and then cheating on his taxes to cover up the ill-gotten gains."
Lesson 2 - Duke Cunningham believed his constituents were sheep - and many of them were.
"In a testament to his popularity, or to voters' willingness to grant the benefit of the doubt, he was still basking in adoration even after he became the focus of a San Diego federal grand jury investigation into his dealings with a defense contractor, a contractor who paid an inflated price for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home.
And all through that ceremony, just as each time Cunningham accepted similar plaudits over the last four years, he was living a double life ---- one as a seemingly committed politician, the other as a seemingly unabashed crook."
Lesson 3 - The "free press" has a public responsibility.
"For the media, including the North County Times, that failed to notice or paid scant attention while the congressman was upgrading his ride to a Rolls-Royce, moving into a gated mansion and seemingly living high on the hog, what questions should there be, and have been, in newsrooms?"
[...]
"It was a Copley News Service report in June that started the unraveling of Randy Cunningham's web of deceit.
Marcus Stern, in the news service's Washington office, detailed how Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc., paid $700,000 more for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home that he would sell it for less than a year later. That purchase provided the cash for Cunningham to buy the gated mansion in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.
Until then, rarely was there a negative word about Cunningham, who had won regular endorsement for re-election from this newspaper.
At the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and center for continuing education, vice president and senior scholar Dr. Roy Peter Clark suggested that until Stern's report, the media may have lost sight of its role as a government watchdog.
Newsroom budget cuts over the years that have reporters covering multiple beats and lack of money to fund bureaus in Washington are one part of the problem, Clark said.
"Communities should hold their news organizations accountable," he said last week. "Not necessarily for some sort of ideological bias, but in terms of performance and level of public service."
Lesson 4 - The public has the responsibility to pay attention.
"Leon Panetta, a former California congressman and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said voters have the power to effect real change.
"Voters have got to stop taking members of Congress who seem to somehow get the notion that they are entitled to their seats for granted," Panetta said in an interview last week from his office at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy at Cal State Monterey Bay. "Redistricting has created safe seats to the point the public is almost apathetic about who represents them, and when the public isn't vigilant and doesn't pay attention, this is what can happen."
Lesson 5 - The people can't trust the Republican congress.
"The way the process works is clearly subject to tremendous abuse, and I think voters need to take a careful look at that and look for candidates willing to address those kinds of problems."
The Republican and Democratic parties would be wise to start that review before next year's elections, Shepherd added, citing the ongoing case against former House Republican majority leader Tom DeLay, accused of illegally steering money to Texas state legislators as well as violating House ethics rules in his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"The DeLay controversy gets far more publicity nationally, but it gets down to the same basic problem that Cunningham represents ---- the lack of accountability and the tremendous temptation for elected officials to succumb to financial interests."
Of course, it is easy to look back and pick out the failures. Monday morning quarterbacking. I'm still waiting for the San Diego County press to start taking a serious look at the county's other "Cunninghams".
People like Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-52), who had close ties to the same Co-conspirators as Cunningham. People like Howard Kaloogian (running to fill the Cunningham's seat), who is closely tied to right wing campaign money laundry, Move America Forward.
It's déjà vu all over again. No lessons learned.
Lesson 1 - Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
"[Cunningham's] decade-and-a-half-long public life was that of a flag-waving, Reagan-like conservative who wielded influence and brought home millions in government contracts through his positions on powerful appropriations and intelligence committees.
But since 2001, from what is now known, his private life was all about arranging and taking bribes, laundering the money and then cheating on his taxes to cover up the ill-gotten gains."
Lesson 2 - Duke Cunningham believed his constituents were sheep - and many of them were.
"In a testament to his popularity, or to voters' willingness to grant the benefit of the doubt, he was still basking in adoration even after he became the focus of a San Diego federal grand jury investigation into his dealings with a defense contractor, a contractor who paid an inflated price for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home.
Investigation or not, Escondido Rotarians in June gave their 50th District congressman not one but two standing ovations, and they also sang him a song of praise set to the tune of "Anchors Aweigh."
Lesson 3 - The "free press" has a public responsibility.
"For the media, including the North County Times, that failed to notice or paid scant attention while the congressman was upgrading his ride to a Rolls-Royce, moving into a gated mansion and seemingly living high on the hog, what questions should there be, and have been, in newsrooms?"
[...]
"It was a Copley News Service report in June that started the unraveling of Randy Cunningham's web of deceit.
Marcus Stern, in the news service's Washington office, detailed how Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc., paid $700,000 more for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home that he would sell it for less than a year later. That purchase provided the cash for Cunningham to buy the gated mansion in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.
Until then, rarely was there a negative word about Cunningham, who had won regular endorsement for re-election from this newspaper.
At the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and center for continuing education, vice president and senior scholar Dr. Roy Peter Clark suggested that until Stern's report, the media may have lost sight of its role as a government watchdog.
Newsroom budget cuts over the years that have reporters covering multiple beats and lack of money to fund bureaus in Washington are one part of the problem, Clark said.
"Communities should hold their news organizations accountable," he said last week. "Not necessarily for some sort of ideological bias, but in terms of performance and level of public service."
Lesson 4 - The public has the responsibility to pay attention.
"Leon Panetta, a former California congressman and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said voters have the power to effect real change.
"Voters have got to stop taking members of Congress who seem to somehow get the notion that they are entitled to their seats for granted," Panetta said in an interview last week from his office at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy at Cal State Monterey Bay. "Redistricting has created safe seats to the point the public is almost apathetic about who represents them, and when the public isn't vigilant and doesn't pay attention, this is what can happen."
Lesson 5 - The people can't trust the Republican congress.
"The way the process works is clearly subject to tremendous abuse, and I think voters need to take a careful look at that and look for candidates willing to address those kinds of problems."
The Republican and Democratic parties would be wise to start that review before next year's elections, Shepherd added, citing the ongoing case against former House Republican majority leader Tom DeLay, accused of illegally steering money to Texas state legislators as well as violating House ethics rules in his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"The DeLay controversy gets far more publicity nationally, but it gets down to the same basic problem that Cunningham represents ---- the lack of accountability and the tremendous temptation for elected officials to succumb to financial interests."
Of course, it is easy to look back and pick out the failures. Monday morning quarterbacking. I'm still waiting for the San Diego County press to start taking a serious look at the county's other "Cunninghams".
People like Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-52), who had close ties to the same Co-conspirators as Cunningham. People like Howard Kaloogian (running to fill the Cunningham's seat), who is closely tied to right wing campaign money laundry, Move America Forward.
It's déjà vu all over again. No lessons learned.
posted by RJB at 7:31 AM
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