Prominent blogger Josh Marshall has turned his attentions back to Rep. Virgil Goode, now that Randy “Duke” Cunningham has admitted to taking $2.4M in bribes from MZM and resigned. Writes Marshall:
Now, let me make one thing emphatically clear. Goode got what is for a backbench congressman a ton of money from MZM (and its employees). He clearly played a role in getting them set up with this Center in his district which the Pentagon was in no particular hurry to build. But there’s no evidence, to the best of my knowledge, that Goode was personally enriched in any by Wade. Personally enriched, that is, as opposed to getting lots of money in campaign contributions.
Still, Mitch Wade has a pretty clear MO. He’s also pretty clearly looking down the barrel of some serious indictments. So it seems worth looking to see whether any other members of Congress fell victim, shall we say, to Wade’s innovative ways of doing business.
He also provides this helpful photograph of Rep. Goode and MZM president Mitchell Wade:
That is one sleazy looking picutre. At first glance it looks as if Wade is taking out a billfold.
Whether Goode was enriched to the tune of, say, 17,000 dollars for a tune-up on a Rolls-Royce, or the same amount was slipped into his campaign purse, he is just as guilty either way.
Indeed, the question is whether he traded votes for contributions. If there’s any reason to think that Goode has taken money off the books, I haven’t seen it.