Sunday, June 18, 2006

The San Bernardino Sun starts an examination of another member of congress exposed by the turnover of the Cunningham rock. CA-44's own Wilkes/Lowery/Lewis crony, Ken Calvert.

Calvert has connections with two people who reportedly are unindicted co-conspirators in the Cunningham case - Thomas Kontogiannis and Brent Wilkes.[...]

Also ensnared in the scandal is New York developer Kontogiannis. Cunningham helped the developer with New York prosecutors when he had legal trouble, and a mortgage company run by relatives of Kontogiannis helped finance a Virginia condo and Rancho Santa Fe house for Cunningham.

Cunningham, Kontogiannis and Calvert took a December 2004 trip to Saudi Arabia, according to the Copley News Service. Calvert's financial disclosures show a businessman, Ziyad Abduljawad, paid for the trip that was "to promote discourse and better relations between the two nations."

Ahh..Republicans. I'll give you a challenge. Find a SoCal Republican who isn't corrupt.