A rather cunning scam

That awful sewer smell is emanating once again from the House of Representatives, but this time it's coming from the office of San Diego Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Duke has weaved himself a web of self-enrichment that would make Jack Abramoff proud.

Apparently, Rep. not-so-Cunningham sold his house to a defense contractor buddy for $1.7 million. The defense contractor then sold the house for about $1 million. Another pal of Duke's, Elizabeth Todd, a realtor and donor to his campaigns, arranged both sales. The defense contractor lost $700,000, but has gained over $25 million in government contracts in recent years, partly due to the assistance of Rep. Cunningscam.

For more sordid details read here, but basically it's a case of you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back, and let's both scratch hers while we're at it. To make matters worse, Duke picked the wrong spokesman to vouch for him.

The back scratcher