Customer Reviews

The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught

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I live in San Diego and bought this book at a street festival. Two of the authors (Marcus Stern and Dean Calbreath) were there and signed the book for me.

The book describes the seemingly sudden fall of Congressman and war hero Randy Cunningham. I say "seemingly" because the authors show that his crimes were the logical extensions of a pattern of behavior based on the belief that he was above rules and laws that the rest of us follow.

The book starts on Duke's best day: May 10, 1972. On that day he and Willie Driscoll shot down three enemy aircraft; this made them the first Navy Aces of the Vietnam War and they were awarded the Navy Cross. What few people knew about Duke was his demand that he be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he made this demand to his commanding officer, Ron McKeown, told him: "You ain't going to get the Medal of Honor. Here's what's going to go down: First, both of you are going to go get a haircut. Then you're going to get your blues cleaned and pressed with gold braid and make sure you've got a good shine on your shoes. And tomorrow, at ten o'clock, a grateful nation is going to heap its praise on two of its lofty heros and give you the Navy Cross. And you're going to accept them and be gracious and charming. Anything less than that and I will personally rip your [breasts] off."

From there it's off to the races. Duke's life was nothing more than a series of these events leading to Congress where he had no Ron McKeown to reign him in. As a congressman he played up the war hero image to the max, even falsely claiming to be the inspiration of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. He also found that there were people who would slip money to him in return for awarding defense contracts and this seemed to have no limit.

Duke's world started to fall apart when it was revealed that he sold his home for an inflated price to Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who earned incredible profits from Duke's earmarks. Pulling this string began an avalanche of stories that even Duke's best efforts couldn't stop. My favorite story was his call to an antique store in Maryland. Mr. Wade bought several antiques for Duke and in a pathetic attempt to cover this Duke called the manager to "remind" her that when Wade paid for it with a credit card, Duke reimbursed Wade with cash. He insisted he paid Wade $35,000 but the manager (Sandra Ellington) wouldn't buy it saying that she would remember if he gave Wade 350 $100 bills.

I liked the book and recommend it, but with two caveats. First, the book has 4 authors and it shows. They all have different writing styles and it makes the book choppy; they would have been well served if they had hired one editor to smooth over this and make the book easier to read. Second one of the authors (I'm not sure which) had a habit of making assumptions with nothing to back it up. In describing Duke's lifestyle between marriages he talked about Duke's evenings at the officer's club on base. "Cunningham...was no stranger to the police during these years. But these were different times, way before Mothers Against Drunk Driving and legislative crackdowns on drinking, long before the term 'designated driver' existed. And not many cops, either on or off the base, were about to arrest a man they knew was the Navy's only ace. Far better to just make sure he got home safely without hurting himself or others." The quotation is fine but gives no indication that Duke drove drunk or was pulled over. This would have had much more credibility if he had a quotation from a local cop who had pulled him over.

That said, it's a good read about a man who believed he was untouchable.

I got a copy of this book from Strand Bookstore a few days ago, and I'm having a hard time putting it down. "The Wrong Stuff" is a devastating portrait of "Duke" Cunningham and the cozy, incestuous world of lobbyists, defense contractors, and politicians. Reading it makes me see that there is something profoundly rotten in the way that appropriations and earmarks are handled in Congress ...something that pervades both sides of the aisle (Republican and Democrat).

As for "Duke" Cunningham, I think that it is tragic that he didn't die in the dogfight over North Vietnam that made him a genuine hero and the only Navy fighter ace of the Vietnam War. Because you could argue that him becoming a hero was the worst that could have ever happened to him with his jumbo sense of entitlement...and the worst thing that could have happened for the country as well.

Lily Tomlin once said no matter how cynical you are, you can't keep up. Mostly, I've viewed Congress as corrupt in those small, corrosive and bipartisan ways: a campaign donation begets wording in a bill, a vote or a visit. But, the size and scale of Duke Cunningham's pocket-bulging corruption boggles the mind. It must be read to be believed. And, the authors carefully inserted an important qualifier in their subtitle: the Most Corrupt Congressman EVER CAUGHT. All of which makes you wonder: What happened to all those promised reforms on ethics and lobbying?

The Wrong Stuff is a good read on a number of levels.

It challenges our overuse of the word "hero" and forces us to be more discerning and skeptical about those we so readily put on pedestals. Apart from those few minutes over North Vietnam, a bit of luck combined with flying skill, there was nothing heroic about Duke Cunningham. Character flaws were evident in his youth. What he did in Congress should come as no surprise. As Sartre says, the end is in the beginning.

The Wrong Stuff illustrates the need for political reform in campaign finance, the legislative process of earmarks, ethics and oversight. These are dry subjects, but by putting a face -- albeit a sad and corrupt one --on the subject, the authors have penned a readable, well-understood page-turner. They have made a complex issue understandable.

And it is a good how-to book on journalism. Marc Stern broke the story by using good, old-fashioned news instinct born of experience first gained poking around the docks of the gritty Los Angeles port of San Pedro, then later the back hallways and rooms of Washington. He followed those instincts by working the phones, asking probing questions, pounding the pavement and not taking no for an answer. If you want a lesson on how to win a Pulitzer, which Stern did, this is a good place to start. He followed the Yogi Berra axiom: "You can see a lot just by looking."

Don't forget, Duke was using his influence and reputation as a war hero to steer defense contracts. He was stealing from the Armed Forces in time of war, a traitor to his country and his own men.

Here's a scandal that sent a congressman to prison and resulted in the indictments of several top officials, but which got buried by the press. The only reason it even got local coverage was when an army of FBI agents showed up and emptied the homes of top CIA officials. Even that got very little coverage.

Not only is Duke at the center of the Hookergate scandal, this ties into the US attorney scandal, as well as the indictment of Brent Wilkes and former CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. The Wilkes/Foggo debacle is tied to bribery at the CIA. Google their names and "IranConta" to see how many of the characters in the Cunningham scandal go back to the Reagan administration. Apparently the money laundring, drug running, and bribery network that started in the 80's took on a life of its own. While the Iraq war was still in the planning stages, they swarmed into DC and started bribing congressmen like Cunningham to get their cut of the Iraq pie in the form of sole source contracts.

I enjoyed reading the book, but there are certain failures here. The followup investigations into Wilkes/Wade/Foggo and Kontogiannis are much more important. Also, a small wire fraud investigation at Vallejo proved to be nuclear for Washington. The timeline of Carol Lam's firing is just too suspicious. The day after she delivered warrants to Langley. That scared someone in the White House.

Wade was directly connected to a certain office. For a great followup article, just read Fertik's article on MZM and NGIC and the WMD issue that began as early as 2002. Also read the Senate report on the aluminum tube controversy. It's fascinating. I note that it's been dropped from everyone's radar.

In short, my hat's off to these great journalists. Journalism is not completely dead in America. The question is: where was the NYT and WaPo? Where are the other major news organizations? This is something that should have hit them on the head. Of course, they won't cover it. They can't. Their editors would get a phone call.

The attorney firings were a coverup, nothing more. The Cunningham case was great in that it caused the former administration to act quickly, not for the Duke-stir, but to cover up the Kontogiannis/Wilkes/Wade (and Vallejo) cases. I wish these guys would follow up and cover Kontogiannis, but they can't. This case has been permanently sealed (classified), since it leads to some very embarassing details. The Vallejo wire fraud segment? No one will touch it. Just check out the Shirlington limo service appropriations. Lam scared just about everyone in Washington, since it led to the heart of the matter, our raison d'etre for going into Iraq.

Connect the dots. That's your job. Don't expect congress to do your job for you.

The author's claim that Cunningham was a corrupt Congressman is true, but his claim that he is the "Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught" is not true. Congressman William Jefferson has been caught The FBI seized $90,000 in marked bills in Jefferson's home freezer. That cold cash is just the tip of the iceberg of the evidence against "Dollar Bill" Jefferson.
There is a major difference between Cunningham and Jefferson. Cunningham was a brave and decorated combat pilot. By contrast, Jefferson did not serve in combat and may never have served in the military at all.
This book is a one-sided hatchet job.