Duke Cunningham's Friends are Friends of Others As Well

The San Diego Union-Tribune continues to show why they need to win some awards for their reporting on money, politics and corruption. They are now digging beyond Randy "Duke" Cunningham to find other politicians who associated with companies and individuals that bribed Cunningham.

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None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions.

And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.
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I suggest you read the article. But if you are not willing to, let me summarize and get right to the point: Doolittle is despicable. Doolittle is not on the level of Duke. What he did may be technically legal, and it is nowhere on the scale of Duke. But he set up a system where he would help companies get contracts and he and his wife got money. It's that simple.

In March of 2001 Julie Doolittle set up a fund raising consultancy by the name of Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions. She was to raise money for her husband, and received 15% of whatever she raised. Which, with CA being a communal property state, means Rep. Doolittle received 15% of whatever was contribute to his campaign. From the article:

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The business, which is based at the couple's home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman's office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had.

Within months of its opening, the firm was receiving commissions from her husband's campaign. Within the next two years, it was planning fundraising events for Abramoff and handling bookkeeping for the Korean lobbying group in Buckham's office suite, where DeLay's wife, Christine, also was working.

Federal and state campaign records show that Julie Doolittle has received nearly $180,000 in commissions from her husband's political fundraising since late 2001.
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To put this in perspective, in 2004 Doolittle's opponent raised $2,300 for his campaign. Which means Doolittle and his wife PERSONALLY received over 75 times as much money as Doolittle's opponent was able to scrounge up to run against him.

At least Doolittle is standing firm. While most politicians have returned funds from companies widely recognized as the ones Duke admitted bribed him, Doolittle is still refusing to do so (either from his campaign, or his personal checkbook).

It doesn't matter which party this is, or even if this may somehow be technically legal. If Doolittle or anyone else in Congress wants to get paid then they should become lobbyists - not help cronies get $37 million in government contracts.