Harpers is out with some Hookergate news. Ken Silverstein, who broke the story last week, has gone back to his sources who confirm that at least six Congressmen were seen attending Wilkes poker parties--or perhaps we should say
poke-her parties.
Meanwhile, I double-checked with my sources regarding who attended Wilkes's parties, and all of them repeated what they had said before: over the years, at least six former and current members of Congress were said to have been at events sponsored by Wilkes, and their names have apparently been provided to investigators in the Cunningham case. Also, it wasn't only congressmen who were at the parties; intelligence officials, businessmen, and assorted hangers-on also attended. (As we previously noted, some of the attendees may have simply dropped by for a drink.)
The Loss of Goss
Why did the CIA's chief resign so abruptly?
Posted on Monday, May 8, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
(more below the fold)
Silverstein also fingers Nine-Fingers:
The names of two other people with ties to Goss have surfaced in connection with the Cunningham scandal. One of them is a man nicknamed "Nine Fingers," whom Newsweek identified as Brant Bassett. "An eyewitness," reads the article, "(who asked not to be identified commenting on sensitive matters) told Newsweek that in 1999, Foggo, Cunningham and [Bassett] attended an all-male Wilkes poker party at the Westin Grand Hotel in Washington." I was also told by one well-connected former CIA officer that Bassett is one of the agency's old Soviet hands who "always managed to get himself into trouble."
Of course, the really fun game to play is: Guess the Congressmen?
On the theory that the lawmakers who are most likely to be involved are the same folks who received campaign contributions from Wilkes, I did a diary last week called Hookergate: Follow The Money that traced Wilkes campaign contributions to various Republican Congressmen, including prominent memebers of the intel, defense and appropriations committees. Here's the bottom line:
Armed Services
Duncan Hunter (CA), Chairman - $43,200
Jim Saxton (NJ) - $1,500
Ken Calvert (CA)- $8,000
Appropriations
Jerry Lewis (CA), Chairman - $86,252
Bill Young (FL) - $6,500
Tom Delay (TX) - $70,000
Henry Bonilla (TX) - $19,500
Joe Knollenberg (MI) - $13,000
Robert Aderholt (AL) - $2,000
John Doolittle (CA) - $103,000
Don Sherwood (PA) - $1,000
Mark Kirk (IL) - $5,000
Select Committee on Intelligence
Peter Hoekstra (MI) - $4,000
Heather Wilson (NM) - $3,000
Darrell Issa (CA) - $5,000
Interestingly, 7 of 10 Republicans on the 1999 Intelligence Committee are on Wilkes' list:
Chairman: Jerry Lewis (CA-40) [now CA-41] - $86,252
C.W. "Bill" Young (FL-10) - $6,500
Joe Skeen (NM-02) [retired] - $6,000
David Hobson (OH-07) - NO MONEY
Henry Bonilla (TX-23) - $19,500
George Nethercutt (WA-05) [ran for Senate] - $2,500
Ernest Jim Istook (OK-05) [running for Governor] - NO MONEY
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (CA-51) [Heh] - $106,300
Jay Dickey (AR-04) [defeated in 2000] - $1,000
Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11) - NO MONEY
Some other prominent Republicans ($10K+) on Wilkes List:
Roy Blunt (MO) - $21,000
Larry Craig (ID) - $43,000
Benjamin Gilman (NY) - $42,146
Robert Livingston (LA) - $10,000
Devin Gerald Nunes (CA) - $13,000
Ronald Packard (CA) - $11,000
Charles Robb (VA-Senate) - $17,000 Correction: Robb is a Democrat
Billy Tauzin (LA) - $18,587
Jerry Weller (IL) - $10,000
Quite a list.
Well, we had some fun voting for our favorite Hookergate frog march candidate, and I thought maybe we'd take another whack at it: