$24,000 A Month

"You weren't wet. You weren't cold. You weren't
hungry and yet you did these things."
-- Judge Larry Burns sentencing Rep. Cunningham

Randy Cunningham got eight years and four months for strongarming defense contractors for $2.4 million.

That comes out to one month in jail for every $24,000 he accepted in bribes.

That's ridiculous.

Defense contractor Mitchell Wade has admitted to giving Cunningham more than $1 million in gifts, but has not yet been sentenced. Three more await probable indictments. They should pay an even more dear price than Cunningham and their companies should be penalized a significant multiple of the value of the contracts they "won" through Cunningham.

We need and deserve the best weapons and intelligence-gathering equipment possible, and the price must be fair. Anyone who gets in the way of this through corruption is just as much a threat to America as al Qaeda.

p.s.: Thanks to Maj. Bertram Pudgeman for correcting my erroneous math -- I originally had Duke clearing $240,000 a month. He asks if that correction makes me feel better. Not much.