Cunningham Pleads Guilty and Resigns

Not that surprising.

But this certainly makes me wonder how far this type of corruption extends. Steve Soto agrees and asks the appropriate question,

How many of you out there think that Randy Cunningham’s crimes are an isolated incident, that he was just “one bad apple”, and that the rest of the GOP House leadership knew nothing about his $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, and weren’t getting rich off this war on terror since 9/11 in similar ways as well? There’s a reason why the House and Senate GOP refuse to investigate this war, the lies told to sell it, the disappearing Iraq reconstruction monies, and even Abu Ghraib. And that reason is purely to protect their own asses. Cunningham’s actions, along with the Abramoff/Scanlon cesspool, are just the tip of the K Street iceberg that guys like Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, and Grover Norquist have steered the GOP ship into.

GOP leadership should be terrified, but they probably have been working this all out with Cunningham to begin with. They probably directed him on when to resign and accept responsibility, but I am just speculating. Its quite clear that this is more than just politics, as Cunningham could be up for 10 years in prison - although I still suspect a bargain to be made.

As for the district, elections will probably be sometime early next year. I suspect that Schwarzy, who has ultimate authority on deciding when to have it, will not wait for the primary, as there will be a large Democratic contingent coming out to vote for either of the possible gubernatorial nominees: Phil "I am not an elite" Angelides or Steve "I am electable" Westly. Either way, the Republicans should be able to regain this one. Nonetheless, Kos says to vote for Francine Busby, so that is my pick.