As I noted here the other day, Seth Hettena has reported that Mitchell Wade, the man who bribed Randy “Duke” Cunningham and “then did much to speed the congressman’s spectacular fall,” has apparently aided the government in its investigation of at least five other past and current members of Congress. Those five other members “no doubt include Virgil Goode and Katherine ‘Pink Sugar’ Harris,” Hettena noted. “Wade wanted to open facilities in their districts and made $78,000 in ‘straw’ contributions to grease the wheels.”
So who are the other three members Wade might have ratted out? I ran that by two Washington insiders who have been closely following congressional corruption investigations. Their guesses — and I emphasize that they were speculating here — were identical: Jerry Lewis, John Doolittle and Tom DeLay. All three have been publicly ensnared in serious ethics issues and all have links to defense contractor Brent Wilkes, Wade’s former boss, who is now himself serving time in prison for bribing Cunningham.
