The competition to be the number one corrupt Republican legislator in Washington, D.C. is keen.

Recently the corruption spotlight shone brightly on the longest serving Republican senator of all, Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Stevens had become the "King of Pork".  The word "pork" in Senate terms defines pet projects of House and Senate members for an assortment of cash for the people who put them in office.

Stevens had sent a series of huge sums back home to Alaska as the "King of Pork".  His most notorious achievement was the Alaskan Bridge that led to nowhere.  

Josh Marshall points us to the San Diego North County Times which reports that even in a jail cell, Duke Cunningham is not cooperating with investigators.

Still, with or without the Dukestir's help, it appears that things are about to get mighty interesting:

"This is much bigger and wider than just Randy 'Duke' Cunningham," he said. "All that has just not come out yet, but it won't be much longer and then you will know just how widespread this is."

The fallout from Cunningham's more than five years of taking bribes from defense contractors continues to reverberate from coast to coast.

In Washington on Monday, the No. 3 official at the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, announced he is retiring in the wake of last week's resignation by Porter Goss as the spy agency's director.

Foggo's resignation may have more to do with his relationship to Cunningham and Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes than with Goss' decision to step down.

One word of advice to Cortex readers: make sure that you're well stocked in popcorn.

Anonymous prostitute produces photographic evidence of upper level CIA and Bush administration involvement in prostitution for favors ring

Washington, DC (Rotters) - A Washington, DC area prostitute has come forwards lending credence to the allegations of CIA officials' involvements in wild poker parties and prostitution exchanged in favors for legislation. The prostitute who remained nameless and in an undisclosed location has released pictures to Rotters and talked with its reporters about his story.

Update [2006-4-12 2:7:52 by sdf]:

More numbers in at 11:00pm PDT (now 66%), with just a slight uptick for Busby:

FRANCINE BUSBY       45963       43.28%

BRIAN P. BILBRAY       16268       15.32%

ERIC ROACH       15197       14.31%

Update [2006-4-12 1:38:33 by sdf]:

At 10:30 PDT, with 22% tallied, they are relatively steady at:

FRANCINE BUSBY       33399       42.88%

BRIAN P. BILBRAY       11826       15.18%

ERIC ROACH       10848       13.93%

(Original post follows)

Results are beginning to stream in from the special election in California's 50th District to replace disgraced Republican criminal congressman Duke Cunningham.  (We should have a special script key for the phrase "disgraced Republican criminal congressman.")

Democrat Fran Busby has led in polls in this heavily Republican district, but in this heavily contested special election (with 18 candidates in the contest) a majority is needed to avoid a runoff scheduled for June 6th.  (See Chris Bowers's earlier thorough rundown for more details.)

As of 10:05 PDT, with 7% tallied, the results are

FRANCINE BUSBY (D)       29037       42.19%
BRIAN P. BILBRAY (R)       10043       14.59%
ERIC ROACH (R)       9652       14.02%

With everyone else below 10%

More updates will hopefully follow.

-- Stu

A news item from the last hour (or the Friday news dump).

Well, as if we didn't already know, it's a small, small BushWorld.  Here's your teaser:

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.

The CIA Inspector General has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials. Foggo is the number 3 man at the CIA

Just for fun, see if you can pick up all the Bush threads in following bit of tapestry:

As executive director of the CIA, Foggo oversees the administration of the giant spy agency. He was appointed to the post by CIA director Porter Goss after working as a mid-level procurement supervisor, according to former CIA officials.

While based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversaw and approved contracts for CIA operations in Iraq.

Foggo is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, listed as unindicted co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.

Even by BushWorld standards, the Cunningham/Wilkes scandal is mind-boggling:

According to government documents, Wilkes gave Cunningham $630,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for help in getting government contracts.

Wilkes was the founder of ADSC, Inc, in 1995. Under Wilkes, the company obtained more than $95 million in government contracts.

snip>
Cunningham is involved in what prosecutors call a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. He actually priced the illegal services he provided.

Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for today's sentencing hearing.

"The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress."

snip>
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.

Go read the whole thing.  

In this long, long, five-year tapestry of corrupt capitalism running amok, the threads continue to unravel.

As if we needed more evidence, but the hits just keep coming:

Washington defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade admitted yesterday in federal court that he attempted to illegally influence Defense Department contracting officials and tried to curry favor with two House members, in addition to lavishing more than $1 million in cash, cars, a boat, antiques and other bribes on convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The new admissions, including details that identify Reps. Virgil H. Goode Jr. (R-Va.) and Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) as recipients of illegal campaign contributions, are contained in Wade's agreement to plead guilty to four criminal charges stemming from his role in the Cunningham probe.  

Not that we didn't already know most of this, but isn't it interesting how it's all playing out.  Maybe the aspens truly are "turning":

Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters after the plea that the growth of MZM appeared to be "an American success story." Instead, it was built "by spreading corruption within the congressional appropriations process, the defense contracting apparatus and the financing of congressional campaigns," he said.

Wade went beyond bribing Cunningham, Wainstein added, to include the Defense Department officials who would be making the procurement decisions that affected District-based MZM. This included hiring the son of one official who oversaw the company's work and then hiring the official, too, according to the plea agreement. In return, Defense officials gave Wade's company inside budget information and favorable performance reviews, court documents said.

Wade also pleaded guilty to election law fraud for making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to "Representatives A and B," who are identifiable as Goode and Harris. He did so, the filings said, in hopes that they, like Cunningham, would "earmark" federal money for MZM. Wade gave the funds for the donations to 19 of his employees and their spouses, who then wrote $2,000 checks to the members, according to the documents.

The 2006 election campaign is well underway, with a script virtually constructing itself.

I am somewhat amazed that Democrats have not made more of the Duke Cunningham scandal in their campaign to illustrate the Republican Party's "culture of corruption."  Republicans have somehow gotten away with asserting that the Dukestir is a "lone wolf," with no connection whatsoever to any other Republicans.  

"Why the Dukestir might as well have been a Tory from Britain, or a Christian Socialist from Germany," Republicans exclaim, "He has absolutely no connection whatsoever to present-day elected Republicans!"