Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

A news item from the last hour (or the Friday news dump).

Well, as if we didn't already know, it's a small, small BushWorld.  Here's your teaser:

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.

The CIA Inspector General has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials. Foggo is the number 3 man at the CIA

Just for fun, see if you can pick up all the Bush threads in following bit of tapestry:

As executive director of the CIA, Foggo oversees the administration of the giant spy agency. He was appointed to the post by CIA director Porter Goss after working as a mid-level procurement supervisor, according to former CIA officials.

While based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversaw and approved contracts for CIA operations in Iraq.

Foggo is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, listed as unindicted co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.

Even by BushWorld standards, the Cunningham/Wilkes scandal is mind-boggling:

According to government documents, Wilkes gave Cunningham $630,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for help in getting government contracts.

Wilkes was the founder of ADSC, Inc, in 1995. Under Wilkes, the company obtained more than $95 million in government contracts.

snip>
Cunningham is involved in what prosecutors call a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. He actually priced the illegal services he provided.

Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for today's sentencing hearing.

"The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress."

snip>
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.

Go read the whole thing.  

In this long, long, five-year tapestry of corrupt capitalism running amok, the threads continue to unravel.