[Ninong]

Remember back during the Randy "Duke" Cunningham thread when we were promised hookers? C'mon, you remember! How could you forget. That's was one of our most hilarious threads ever!

Well, fasten your seat belts boys and girls because Hookergate is just getting started and it promises to be just as entertaining as originally advertised!

To recap, in previous episodes Randy "Bandit 12 o'clock High" Cunningham tearfully confessed to accepting at least $2.4 million in "gifts" from at least two defense contractors but steadfastly denied that he had ever been the recipient of sexual favors provided by 'professionals' engaged by the defense contractors for the entertainment of congressmen, high-level CIA officials and others in positions to influence government contracts.

No, siree, the Dukester never, ever took part in any sort of hanky panky involving hookers! And the second of the two major bribers, Brent Wilkes, steadfastly refused to admit he had bribed Randy to the tune of at least $630,000 as claimed by the feds.

Well, finally...

Dusty Foggo, the former executive director of the CIA, has been indicted, along with defense contractor Brent Wilkes!!! Dusty was the No. 3 man at the CIA. He was chosen for the job over a whole bunch of more senior people at the agency by Porter Goss, George Bush's choice to replace George Tenet at the CIA. It was Porter Goss' job to purge the CIA of anyone with Democratic Party leanings, but I digress. Anyway, Dusty Foggo was what we would call the Chief Operating Officer (COO) -- he ran the daily operations of the CIA. He resigned a few days after the FBI raided his CIA office!!! That had to be hilarious! Porter Goss stepped down a few days later.

Speaking of hilarious, the just released indictments hint at what is sure to be a hilarious trial, assuming everyone involved doesn't cop a plea.

Read the indictment against Foggo and Wilkes.

OK, I have to admit that the indictment against Foggo and Wilkes isn't very sexy. Just the typical favors that people like Bob Ney and Tom DeLay enjoyed all the time: A vacation at Pitcastle in Scotland where the castle alone cost $44,000, not counting the $12,000 in airfare, etc. and a week at a private estate in Hawaii that cost $32,000 just for the accomodations. I posted pictures of the Hawaiian estate in one of my previous threads. Then there's the usual $1,000 lunches and dinners that even Katherine Harris enjoyed. Wilkes is accused of bribing Katherine the Great, too, but that's a different story.

So, where's the good stuff? You can't have Hookergate without hookers, can you? It turns out the good stuff is in a different indictment that ABC News didn't link. They summarized it but didn't actually link it. After three minutes of exhaustive online research, I found the indictment with the good stuff here. It's rather mundane until you get to page 25.

ABC News summarizes the juicy parts as follows:

Before he was caught and sent to jail, former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was entertained by prostitutes hired by a defense contractor, according to a new federal indictment against a man he has accused of bribing him with gifts of money, meals and favors.

On Aug. 15 and 16, 2003, Cunningham was in the company of prostitutes in his private quarters of the Hapuna Suite at Hawaii's Hapuna Beach Prince hotel, the document states.

Cunningham had traveled to Hawaii with Brent Wilkes, owner of ADCS Inc., which flourished by receiving millions of dollars worth of government contracts, thanks to Cunningham's interventions. Cunningham has pleaded guilty and is now serving time in prison. He described a co-conspirator, whom prosecutors identified as Wilkes, as one of his key bribers in his plea agreement.

Around 5 p.m. on the 15th, Wilkes told one of his employees on the trip to hire two prostitutes for the evening, according to the document, filed today. He gave the employee $600 to pay for two hours' work from each prostitute, according to the indictment.

Six hours later, two prostitutes arrived accompanied by their "driver," the indictment states. The indictment places quotation marks around "driver." The employee escorted the two prostitutes up to the Hapuna Suite, the document says.

Fifteen minutes later, Wilkes and Cunningham each escorted a prostitute to separate rooms; less than an hour later, Wilkes gave one of the prostitutes a $500 "tip" for the "services," according to the indictment.

The next night, Wilkes arranged to have that prostitute return but asked for a different prostitute to come and accompany Cunningham, the indictment states. The switch was at Cunningham's request, the prosecutors write.

Again, the indictment alleges Wilkes arranged for his employee to pay the prostitutes' "driver" $600. Again, Wilkes tipped the prostitute he was with $500 for the services, prosecutors say.

Though Wilkes' alleged involvement in the Cunningham scandal has been reported for over two years, this is the first time he has been indicted in connection to the fiasco.

The indictment appears to have been written carefully so as not to disclose the names, gender or other identifying characteristics of the prostitutes. Wilkes is scheduled to be arraigned at 9:30 a.m tomorrow.

<End of ABC News summary.>

There are three prostitutes mentioned in the indictment. They are referred to as Prostitutes "A," "B," and "C." Prostitute "C" showed up on the second night as a special request of the Dukester. Interesting to note that the entertainment consisted of 15 minutes of "socializing" and 45 minutes of sex. It also states that the prostitutes were paid for "two hours of work from each prostitute." Does that mean that 45 minutes is the limit of the Dukester's sexual stamina?

So why did ABC News make a point of mentioning that the gender of the prostitutes was not revealed in the indictment? Wouldn't the prostitutes be females? Probably but maybe not. Why is that? I think it has to do with the fact that the FBI has interviewed persons who have given sworn depositions that they provided young male prostitutes on occasion to certain congressmen and other government officials caught up in this investigation and that these services were paid for by the defense contractors under investigation. In fact, they have statements to that effect from more than one source. I don't recall anything being leaked about which congressmen or other government officials received the attention of the male prostitutes. Ted Haggard doesn't count because he's not a government official, just an adviser to the administration on religious issues and family values.

[Ninong]

Here's an interesting side note on those indictments: According to Wall Street Journal, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, one of the seven U.S. Attorneys who are being ousted by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, gave orders to her staff that she wanted these indictments before her last day on the job, which happens to be tomorrow, February 15th.

Ms Lam has been overseeing that investigation and that's probably why she ended up on the Bush Administration's hit list. I'm glad to see she got a last shot in before her forced departure.

I read the other day that the sneaky provision in the revised Patriot Act that gave the Attorney General the authority to name replacement U.S. Attorneys to fill vacancies without having to go through the usual Senate confirmation process was inserted by a staff member on Sen. Arlen Specter's staff. What's more, Specter says it was done without his knowledge. In fact, it was inserted at the last minute and apparently no one paid any attention to it or had any idea what the consequences might be. That's because they're all too naive to realize just how much the Bush Administration hates democracy!

The Bush Administration has asked for the resignations of seven U.S. Attorneys who were involved in prosecuting cases that caused embarrassment to the Administration. All are being replaced by loyalists who can be counted on to do as they are told and under that sneaky little hidden provision in the Patriot Act, they don't have to go through the Senate confirmation process. They're in there indefinitely, which means until the next administration takes over in 2009. All U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President but they are normally nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. This sneaky little provision allows the Attorney General to name replacements in the event of resignations. Previously this was done by the courts.

I'm sure the Democratically controlled Senate will reverse this despicable little attempt by the Bush Administration to interfere with the independence of the federal judiciary. It will require a new bill to remove that provision from the Patriot Act. Of course, Bush could always veto it but at least they would force his hand.

I wonder if Patrick Fitzgerald will be asked to resign if Libby is convicted? It wouldn't surprise me.