WHERE WERE VOTERS DURING CUNNINGHAM'S NUTTY TERMS?

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham was more than a criminal. He was a head
case. And the astounding thing about the California Republican's
career is that federal prosecutors had to take him down. The voters
didn't have the selfregard to do it themselves.

Any number of politicians could have this conservative congressional
district in and around San Diego. The people didn't have to be
represented by a total screwball.

Some might forgive, even enjoy, crusty candor in a decorated Navy
pilot, which Cunningham was But the man's outbursts overshot any rough
charm and landed in lunatic city. That his constituents now express
shock that he could do bad things makes you wonder.

Where do we start with Cunningham? How about the time in 1998 when,
while visiting a hospital, he gave the finger and threw the Fword at
an elderly cancer patient? It seems that the patient, a World War II
veteran, had challenged Cunningham's assertion that the defense budget
was too low. In 1984, Cunningham dared Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis., to
a fistfight for opposing one of his pet pieces of legislation. But for
all his tough-guy bluster, Cunningham fell apart at the smallest sign
of dissent.

He also loved to make menacing statements, and not just to Democrats.
"Your son is dead meat," he told Rep. Nick Smith in 2003, after the
Michigan Republican voted against the Medicare drug benefit. Smith's
crime was turning down a $100,000 bribe that the Republican leadership
had offered him for voting yes. Smith's son was running for Congress,
and the money would have gone into his campaign. The son, Brad Smith,
lost in the GOP primary.

"I have flown an F-14 over this Capitol with a 20-millimeter gun that
could shoot 6,000 rounds a minute," Cunningham told Congress, while
purportedly discussing an assaultweapons ban. "I could disintegrate
this hall in half a second." In 2004, he made a similar comment to a
highschool history class in Encinitas, Calif. "I could've
disintegrated this whole school in half a second," Cunningham said.

One month later, the voters elected him to an eighth term.

Like many bullies, Cunningham could dish it out but he couldn't take
it. In 1994, he supported retaining the death penalty for drug
kingpins. Four years later, his son was convicted of helping smuggle
400 pounds of marijuana from California to Massachusetts. At the
sentencing, Cunningham cried and asked the court for leniency. "He's
never been in trouble before," the congressman said, ignoring that his
son had tested positive for cocaine three times while out on bail. The
son got 21/2 years. Cunningham generated enough hypocrisy to light up
San Diego, but the voters always looked the other way.

Even his corrupt conduct -- taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense
contractors -- was off the wall. A sane man would have buried that
money in the back yard or hidden it in the Cayman Islands. He instead
turned up with a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, Persian rugs and two antique
French commodes.

Cunningham sold his house for $1.7 million to a defense contractor,
who then unloaded it at a $700,000 loss. The lawmaker subsequently
bought a $2.6 million house and let another contractor pay off his
$500,000 second mortgage.

The House Ethics Committee wasn't very interested in this, but any
decent investigative reporter could have seen the oddities of this
lush lifestyle. Several did, and so here we are, marveling at
Cunningham's blatant disregard for appearances.

Some readers may note that the man is mentally ill, a point I would
concede. They may take me to task for using such insensitive terms as
head case, lunatic and screwball. But my heart is hardened. I'm not
working on any insanity defense for Cunningham. Nor have I been moved
by his latest round of blubbering. Cunningham is now out of Congress
and needs to be taken out of general circulation, as well.

The mystery remains: What on Earth was in the voters' minds, year
after year? Set aside the recent revelations of official corruption.
Cunningham made the sort of violent remarks, threats and references to
his weaponry that would have gotten a high-school student expelled and
the police notified. Yet the voters are now surprised that he cheated,
too. I just don't get it.