WAIT A MINUTE, THE DUKE DOESN’T SINK SLOWLY INTO THE WEST – THAT’S THE SUN’S JOB!





"Oh, Mitch from MZ, come listen to me! The Duke begs a wish from the Magic Mitch"



A gander out West reveals that the name “Cunningham” – once synonymous with “Happy Days” is in reality the old Gaelic derivation of a familiar French surname: de Lay.

Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a staunch Republican who has spent the overwhelming majority of his adult life drawing significant paychecks from a Government which he professes is bloated and in need of reduction, has been caught “crimson fisted” in what is at least an embarrassing deal of shady implications; at worst, the “Duke” has been busted garnering hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by a company seeking to gain government defense contracts, an enterprise which involves the watchful “regulatory” eye of the House Military Appropriations Subcommittee, of which Cunningham is a long-standing member.

Back in November, 2003, the Duke apparently wanted to sell his home in the Del Mar area of Southern California. So he set about doing so the way you and I would - he listed the home with a reputable real estate agent/broker, entertained offers from a variety of sources, and then opened an escrow, went through appraisals, the whole schmear. And somehow, Duke wound up with a payment of $1.67 million for the house. The lucky buyer? A defense contractor (MZM, Inc.)who, though it had no local office in Southern California nevertheless wanted to establish a “presence” in the area for “strategic” reasons. Yep, just like all companies seeking to expand their operational presence would do, buy a house in a new region, not lease a commercial space. But then MZM changed its mind and put the house back on the market one month after it completed the purchase from the Duke. Only when the house goes back on the market – a raging hot San Diego housing market – it languishes for 8 months, and winds up selling for just under a million. Translation, the “Duke” just got “lucky.” So did MZM, because around the same time, it obtained government security contracts for the Iraq war worth several million dollars,

And as the story unfolds, we find the Duke has been living on a yacht owned by MZM’s owner and parked in a DC yacht slip. Now Duke pays the slip charges and maintenance fees, and its just a stroke of luck that this winds up saving Duke several hundred dollars in rent money per month. Oh, the name of MZM’s yacht? The Duke-stir, why did you ask?



Okay, here’s the deal: only part of the above is apparently true. Duke did not put the house on the open market. There was no listing agent, and the transaction may have completely avoided escrow. It also appears that the only realtor involvement was the procurement of comps from a newcomer to the R/E business, one who had been a frequent contributor to Duke’s earlier campaigns. This person was the source of the “comps” on which the sales price was based., and at least one investigation reveals that homes selling for the amount Duke received for his back around November, 2003 were much more well appointed and better situated (ocean views and larger lots) than Duke’s. Oh, and MZM was not the buyer of Duke’s house. Some Nevada organized corporation/LLC with an innocuous name was listed as the purchaser.

If the odor of this is buffeting your nostrils about now, you begin to understand why the FBI and the San Diego U.S. Attorney are paying attention. What may be less clear to you is the original response made by Cunningham to the charges. Professing his honesty, the Duke pointed out “I’ve never even smoked a marijuana cigarette.” Sorry, Duke, this cozy relationship reeks much worse than the pungent aroma of smoldering hemp. Yes, and while San Diego is hardly a bastion of progressive liberalism, and it is unlikely that the next Congressional Rep from the 50th in California will be a non-Republican, the lack of a chorus of defenders for the Duke speaks volumes about his prospects for a ninth term in Congress. The cards indicate that soon, Duke will be announcing a desire to “Spend more time with family.”