A moment for 'Duke' to seize

9 Nov 2005 // Political life in the United States has taken another ugly step when corruption becomes a matter of degree, and one man's chicanery, low and sleazy as it may be, fades in comparison with another's, and then another's.

Inevitably, the first case becomes ho-hum, and the pathetic creature at its center ---- mind you, a betrayer himself of the public trust ---- gets a sort of free pass. The press leaves him in relative peace, the ethical watchdogs move on, and the public wonders, where has all the furor gone?

Case in point: Mr. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

He is the congressman from North County's 50th district, who by all accounts has thoroughly disgraced his post and his avuncular self by questionable dealings with a defense contractor that involved hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some dared call it bribery. A grand jury is investigating. Last June and then through the summer it was the biggest news going, not merely in this newspaper but in outlets across the nation. Cunningham announced that he would not run again. He hasn't said much else, apart from an unconvincing sort of half-denial of all accusations.

Amazingly, the pressure is now off. Not because charges have been dropped, or investigations pulled back, or a leavening of general attitudes into that cynical American conviction that "they all do it."

No, the Dukester is out of the spotlight because many of the president's men are apparently in deeper than he, and on matters of far greater gravitty. Such as national security.

The vice president's ex-chief of staff is under indictment, which seems like justice for a grown man with the nickname "Scooter."

A presidential confidant, Karl Rove, is not under indictment but is under suspicion in the same general case. It involved leaking the name of an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency because the agent's husband, an ambassador, didn't (and doesn't) like the policies that led the country into war. It is against the law to out spies.

This is important because Rove is the second-most powerful man in government; Vice President Cheney is first. Each is a puppeteer of the highest order.

Then there's the case of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader variously identified as a pit bull or a bagman. He's always getting in Dutch with the House Ethics Committee, but now his infamy has taken him home again. He is accused in Texas of funneling corporate campaign contributions into the campaign chests of state legislative contestants.

This is against the law in Texas, but mercy obtains: It is the rare sort of Texas crime that does not carry the death penalty.

Oh, and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, is under investigation because he may have violated insider-trading regulations.

Thus grander and more glorious corruption, or accusations thereof, swirls about the four highest offices in the land, if you don't count the San Diego mayoralty. By that, one means grander than Duke's money-grubbing troubles, his questionable sale of Del Mar Heights property to his pal, his life on that pal's yacht on the Potomac, his subsequent purchase of a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe.

What a difference DeLay makes. In the glare of his scandals, and those of the other high-level governmental operators, Duke can hide in the shadows, which is apparently what he's done.

His office insists he is "focusing" on the 50th District. But he doesn't seem to come around the district very often ---- who can forget his affable touch at countless charitable events in North County over the years of his eight terms? ---- and publicity offerings from his office have dwindled to a trickle. His name is attached to no important legislation.

The man has been out-corrupted.

This fact, however, in no way diminishes the seriousness of the crimes that Cunningham was apparently up to in his acquisitive years. Those same ethics-in-Congress groups called many times for his immediate resignation, and that call made sense then and makes sense now.

Curiously, it makes more sense now than ever for him to resign. His being shoved into the background by more grievous corruption than his own affords him a trapdoor not previously open.

Where before, in the center of the only large-scale corruption scandal involving a member of Congress, Cunningham's leave-taking would have been humiliatingly public and he'd have been perceived as hounded from office in disgrace, now it's all different.

Now he can quietly resign his office and slip away into a well-deserved obscurity and hardly anyone will notice. Maybe a few days' taut headlines and that's it.

The greater corruption that gave him some relief will pretty well cover his escape. Duke Cunningham should take the opportunity. His district deserves better than corruption, better than a fraction of a legislator, better than a man who will be tied up in court for years over his smarmy record. He should get out while the getting's good.