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Posted on Aug 5, 2006

A contractor tied to disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham describes America’s congressional appropriations process as little more than a shakedown.


AP:

WASHINGTON—In 1992, Brent R. Wilkes rented a suite at the Hyatt Hotel a few blocks from the Capitol. In his briefcase was a stack of envelopes for a half-dozen congressmen, each packet containing up to $10,000 in checks.

Mr. Wilkes had set up separate meetings with the lawmakers hoping to win a government contract, and he planned to punctuate each pitch with a campaign donation. But his hometown congressman, Representative Bill Lowery of San Diego, a Republican, told him that presenting the checks during the sessions was not how things were done, Mr. Wilkes recalled.

Instead, Mr. Wilkes said, Mr. Lowery taught him the right way to do it: hand over the envelope in the hallway outside the suite, at least a few feet away.

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By Spinoza, August 5, 2006 at 2:18 pm Link to this comment
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Read the Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens or any of his books on city corruption. There is a myth that American capitalism is less corrupt than capitalism in other capitalist countries.  It just isn’t true.  All economic systems have corruption.  How could you make a system without corruption?  To do that a cultural change is necessary. We need to make an ethical culture which of course means abolishing the capitalist mentality.

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