The Dread Dinners!

Hey. Remember when Duke Cunningham was a hero? Well, once you’re useless to the up-and-comers, that hero reputation dies a quick death (h/t chrisc).

Wade said the now-imprisoned congressman was so critical to securingmillions of dollars in federal contracts that defense contractors werewilling to act like they were his friends.

"We would dread having dinner with (Cunningham) and having to listen tohim repeat the same jokes," Wade told jurors in the same courtroomwhere Cunningham pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2006 to more thaneight years in prison for taking bribes.

I wonder if Wade is going to tell the jurors that Cunningham’s hot tub was filled with Potomac water, or that Cunningham used it, during parties, naked?

Of course, that only tangentially pertains to Wade’s task at hand, to incriminate Brent Wilkes sufficiently so his own sentence is lessened.

But I do hope Wade’s testimony might serve as a lesson to those other Congressmen Representative Flake hopes will be indicted for their earmarking ways. I think it’s this kind of humiliation, as much as anything else, that might serve as a deterrent for these people.