Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Mark Maynard] gop congressman caught with his hand in the cookie jar: A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman's Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon.

[ Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print] MZM, Inc. and Questions About Ethics of TWO Republican Congressmen: A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman’s Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor’s efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon.

[BottleOfBlog] Krazy Kawinkydink Looks Like $700,000 Bribe: But at the same time as all this was happening, according to the article, Wade's defense contracting business started going like gang-busters. In the words of the article, "Wade, who had been suffering through a flat period in winning Pentagon contracts, was on a tear - reeling in tens of millions of dollars in defense and intelligence-related contracts."

[Americablog.blogspot.com] AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: In what Republican strategists call "the DeLay effect," questions plaguing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) are starting to hurt his fellow party members, who are facing news coverage of their own trips and use of relatives on their campaign payrolls. Liberal interest groups have begun running advertising in districts where Republicans may be in trouble, trying to tie the incumbents to their leaders' troubles.Besides DeLay, the other members they're worried about are Bob Ney from Ohio, Richard Pombo from California, and Charles Taylor from North Carolina. But, the whole GOP caucus is tainted by their sleaziness.

[Americablog.org] AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: For years I the GOP loved to make fun of Democrats, telling anyone who would listen that the Democrats lost touch with the people. With this latest poll out showing that Americans are fed up with the mess that Bush created, when are we going to hear the Republicans accept that they screwed up and have made a mess of our foreign policy? Bush and the GOP are way outside of the American mainstream and it's time the Democrats quit whining about Dean and get a spine and go on the offensive against the GOP.

[Talkingpointsmemo.com] Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents. In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved."

[Waldo.jaquith.org] Waldo Jaquith: Mr. Wade had been unable to procure any new Pentagon contracts for a long while. ... Cunningham, and I wonder how that has affected his votes? ...

[Lewrockwell.com] Electing the Pentagon's Man by Tom Engelhardt and Chalmers Johnson: On July 12–14, Decision Research, one of the most respected polling firms in the country, conducted a telephone poll of 440 registered voters in the district. Among its findings were that when they heard Cunningham's voting record on abortion, school vouchers, protecting the environment, the Iraq war, spending on weapons, and many other issues, his lead dropped from 18 to 4 percentage points, within the poll's 4.7% margin of error. The relatively unknown Democratic candidate running against him is Francine Busby, past president of one of the district's school boards, who has nonetheless put together a powerful campaign, particularly among women, drawing attention to the way Cunningham has sold-out the welfare of the district to special interests.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Iraq, Iraq Reviews