As the Jack Abramoff scandal shuffles into one of its occasional lulls and lobbying reform bills stumble to a vote on the Hill, there’s a new scandal circling beneath the Capitol’s already choppy waters. And, not to frighten you, but it starts with sex and disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Ever since last June, when The San Diego Union-Tribune published the Duke Cunningham shady-house-sale story that eventually landed him in prison, rumors have swirled about rollicking bacchanals contractors threw for Duke and others as part of their efforts to secure lucrative defense and intelligence contracts. Hints of the parties have even cropped up in published reports. A December 2005 article in the Union-Tribune, for instance, intriguingly noted that in his efforts to entertain lawmakers alleged Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes ran a Capitol Hill “hospitality suite, with several bedrooms.”

That gratuitous mention of the “several bedrooms” always seemed to suggest the reporters knew more than they could report. But it wasn’t until the end of April when The Wall Street Journal’s Scot Paltrow finally brought the story into the open.

According to Paltrow’s story and my own reporting, in addition to the cash gifts Wilkes gave Cunningham, the defense contractor maintained a series of “hospitality suites” around Washington to entertain lawmakers, defense bureaucrats and members of the intelligence community — all in an effort to secure more contracts for his company. First they were at the Watergate and later at the Westin Grand. And federal investigators are looking into whether hookers were one of the forms of entertainment Wilkes provided for Cunningham and perhaps other lawmakers, according to published reports.

Wilkes also reportedly had a helper in putting together his shindigs, and that was Chris Baker, the president of a D.C. limo outfit called Shirlington Limousine & Transportation. His job was to ferry the revelers to Wilkes’s hospitality suites.

Baker’s keeping mum. Or rather his lawyer, Bobby Stafford, is saying that Baker’s policy was “don’t ask, don’t tell.” When the Union-Tribune asked Stafford about his client’s role, he told the paper that for a decade Baker “provided limousine services for Mr. Wilkes for whatever entertainment he had in the Watergate” but Baker was “never in attendance in any party where any women were being used for prostitution purposes.”

To date, only Wilkes, Cunningham and Baker have been implicated in the hooker dimension of the hospitality-suite affair. But setting the prostitution issue aside, it’s clear that the suites were a regular staple for House Defense Appropriations and Intel Committee lawmakers as well as CIA officials through much of the 1990s.

The No. 3 man at CIA, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, attended Wilkes’s parties, as did former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Texas).

And there’s another part of the story that seems ready to light up: Shirlington Limo’s Baker and all his government contracts.

In addition to operating as the personal limo service for the Wilkes hospitality suites, Shirlington had a number of other clients. But nothing ever seemed to go well. On a trip to Atlanta in 2002, the Shirlington buses that the Bowie State Bulldogs were traveling in were repossessed for nonpayment. A few months earlier, Howard University fired Shirlington, which had been providing university shuttle services, for various infractions.

Company owner Baker has a lengthy criminal record. The company’s been sued for nonpayment, and repeatedly its Department of Transportation common-carrier licenses have been revoked. By 1994, Shirlington seemed like a shoo-in for corporate oblivion when suddenly it started landing big contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In April 2004, Shirlington got its first contract with DHS, valued at $3.8 million. It followed up in October 2005 with a DHS contract for $21.2 million for “shuttle services and executive transportation support.”

Shirlington squires every top appointee at DHS around town, with the exception of Secretary Michael Chertoff. And this most recent contract appears to have been awarded while Shirlington’s Department of Transportation motor-passenger common-carrier authority was under “involuntary revocation.”

Just how is it that DHS is subcontracting all its executive transportation and shuttle work to a company owned by a guy with a lengthy criminal record who’s never been more than one step ahead of his numerous creditors? Good question.

As you can see, this whole story is still murky and convoluted. And it’s not clear where all the pieces fit together. You have lavish hospitality suites for Agency staff and members of Congress provided by one of the contractors who allegedly bribed Duke Cunningham, hookers, and a limo-company owner whose dismal business record and lengthy rap sheet haven’t stopped him for scoring a huge contract with the Department of Homeland Security. At least half a dozen major news organizations are busily at work on the story, and it’s not hard to see why.

In a Tuesday online chat, the Post’s Tom Edsall said: “This is the kind of story that smells like there is a whole lot more there, and if there, it will be one great story.” And I think Tom’s right.

Marshall is editor of talkingpointsmemo.com. His column appears in The Hill each week.
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