NORTH COUNTY ---- Two competing books set for
release this spring tell the sordid story of the man
now known as the most corrupt member of Congress in
the nation's history ---- imprisoned former North
County U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
The dark tale of Cunningham's rise from his days as
a Navy Top Gun pilot and meteoric fall are recounted
in books by San Diego-based Associated Press
reporter Seth Hettena and four reporters who wrote
the story as it happened for The San Diego
Union-Tribune.
In November 2005, Cunningham pleaded guilty to one count each of income tax evasion and bribery for his role in a massive bribery scheme that saw him take $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering tens of millions in government business to defense contractors. He is now serving an eight-year, four-month federal sentence near Tucson, Ariz.
One of the books on his fall from the pinnacle of
power is titled "The Wrong Stuff ---- The
Extraordinary Saga of Randy Duke Cunningham, the
Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught."
Its authors won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for their
reporting on Cunningham. The writers are: Copley
News Service reporters Marcus Stern, Jerry Krammer
and Washington Bureau Chief George E. Condon Jr.,
along with San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Dean
Calbreath.
The book by the Associated Press' Hettena is called
"Feasting on The Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy
'Duke' Cunningham, History's Most Corrupt
Congressman."
Hettena said last week that he wrote the book to
answer the question, "How did the man who was a Navy
ace in Vietnam become the most corrupt congressman
in U.S. history?"
While the answer may never be known, there are clues
that the seeds of Cunningham's past paved the way to
his fate, Hettena said.
"The road to corruption begins in someone's
formative years ---- how they behave as a young
person reveals where they are headed," he said.
Cunningham had a reputation as a bully in high
school, Hettena said.
Then, as a pilot during the Vietnam War, Cunningham
received the Navy Cross after he shot down three
enemy planes in a single day. But that wasn't good
enough for him, Hettena said. Cunningham wanted the
Medal of Honor.
"He felt that he was cheated out of it -----for
years he had this deep feeling of resentment ...
that things were due him," Hettena said.
Later, Cunningham broke into his commanding
officer's files and read his own and other officers'
performance reviews, Hettena said. Yet when the
commander learned what Cunningham had done, the case
was quietly dispensed with, Hettena said.
He added that the two officers who were in charge of
Cunningham's squadron told him about what Cunningham
had done, an incident he describes in his book.
Hettena said he believes that being let off the hook
for such a serious offense only added to
Cunningham's sense that he could "do no wrong" and
if he did, nothing would happen to him.
The idea for a book on Cunningham, one that would
delve into his complex and seemingly contradictory
character, was one that came to Hettena one day in
the shower, he said.
He instinctively knew it would be a story that
people would want to read, and pitched the idea to
an agent, "and the agent thought so, too," Hettena
said.
Meanwhile, Copley's Stern had his book deal come in
the form of an invitation from the office of Del Mar
literary agent Sandra Dijkstra, Stern said last week
in a phone interview from the houseboat he lives in
on the Potomac River.
"But I don't have all the energy and vitality that
Seth has, so I needed three people to help," Stern
quipped.
The boat slip where Stern's boat was docked is close
to where Cunningham lived on the now infamous
42-foot pleasure boat called the "Duke Stir" ---- a
boat that belonged to one of his co-conspirators,
defense contractor Mitchell Wade.
In early 2006, Wade pleaded guilty in a Washington
federal court to his role in the bribery scheme,
which saw him ply Cunningham with more than $1
million in illicit gifts, cash and favors. Wade is
now awaiting sentencing and, according to the U.S.
attorney's office in Washington, continuing to
cooperate with the government in the ongoing
investigation of Cunningham's associates.
Stern's boat is called, "Muckraker," said Stern, who
in June 2005 broke the first story on Cunningham's
illicit dealings with Wade.
What first piqued Stern's curiosity about
Cunningham, the writer said, was when he noticed
that the eight-term congressman reported making two
separate trips to Saudi Arabia that were paid for by
a private businessman.
"Having been to Saudi Arabia twice myself, I knew it
wasn't the sort of place Cunningham would go twice
---- it's not really a party kind of place," Stern
said.
So he started doing Web searches about San Diego
businessman Ziyad Abduljawad, the man who had
financed Cunningham's two trips. When that search
didn't unearth anything, Stern said, he began
looking at Cunningham's dealings. An online records
search showed that Cunningham had sold his Del Mar
Heights home to a Nevada company named 1523 New
Hampshire Ave. LLC.
Because there is a street in Washington with the
same name and because Stern knew the street well,
having grown up in the city, he decided to look into
things further. As it turned out, 1523 New Hampshire
Ave. was the address of Wade's defense company, MZM
Inc.
At the time Stern first began his research, he had
no idea who Mitchell Wade was, he said. So if Wade
had simply called his company Mitchell Wade Inc.,
that would probably have been the end of it, Stern
said.
Besides looking at Cunningham the man, Stern said
his book also serves as a launching point for an
examination of the process politicians call
"earmarking." Earmarks are last-minute spending
authorizations that are often slipped quietly into
bills at the request of lawmakers. They are one of
the main ways in which Cunningham was able to steer
tens of millions of dollars in government business
to those who were bribing him.
Stern said he is amazed at the dismal efficiency of
a system that allows defense contractors and their
lobbyists or their proxies to make large
contributions to lawmakers, who then amend bills
with favorable deals to those same people.
"It's sort of like a self-licking ice cream cone,"
Stern said, adding that he was quoting a defense
contractor who had worked for Poway defense
contractor Brent Wilkes and Wade at a sensitive Army
intelligence facility.
Wilkes was indicted last week by a San Diego federal
grand jury on charges of bribery, fraud and money
laundering in connection with the Cunningham case.
Wade pleaded guilty to bribery last year in the
Cunningham case and is now awaiting sentencing.
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760)
740-5426 or
wbennett@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.