Cunningham Friends Baffled By His Blunder Into Bribery [View All]

Navy Ace-Turned-Congressman Didn't Act Like Big Spender

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Those who worked for Cunningham and who have associated with him on the Hill said they saw none of the trappings of extravagance. His biggest joy, they said, was skeet shooting, for which he won an award from the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. The joke at his office used to be, one former aide said, that he shopped at Costco and bought three of everything to save money. A defense lobbyist who knows Cunningham well and golfed with him said that the congressman never had his hand out with him. "I'm just stunned," the lobbyist said. "He was a 'dems' and 'dose' kind of guy, a little rough around the edges -- a regular guy."

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On his first trip back to Vietnam, Cunningham sat down with Vietnamese officials for a formal dinner, and his first words of the evening were: "You gooks shot me down."

"It's not exactly the way to start a diplomatic dinner," said Moran, who was on the trip with Cunningham. "I told him quietly that he had bombed them, too."

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A friend had another explanation: "I know what happened, and I know how it happened," Nesby said. "It's really very simple. In the political arena, what at first seems abnormal becomes normal. . . . It's very easy in this environment for one to lose their moral compass."

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