If the House Ethics Committee ever becomes operational again (it is currently paralyzed by cynical GOP efforts to manipulate its composition and operations so as to minimize the chances of Tom DeLay ever being disciplined) it can get the rust off with an easy call: throwing Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham out of Congress.

Cunningham, a San Diego Republican who sits on both the influential House defense appropriations subcommittee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has engaged in unethical conduct so blatant and absurdly obvious that it almost creates its own effective defense, the defense being that nobody in public life could possibly think he could get away with such transparent graft. Thus we have Cunningham's explanation: "I showed poor judgement."

Translation: "I'm an idiot." That may be true, Congressman, but you're also a crook.

This is Cunningham's "bad judgement": in 2003 he sold his Del Mar house for a couple million dollars to Mitchell Wade, the founder of the Washington, D.C.-based defense contracting company MZM Inc. Almost immediately after the sale, Wade put the house back on the market and sold it at a $700,000 loss. Cunningham, meanwhile, took the money he received from Wade and bought a new $2.55 million dollar home.

Did I neglect to mention that Cunningham never actually put his house on the market, selling it privately to Wade?

The most reasonable interpretation of this series of transactions is that it is an instance of money laundering, hiding a defense contractor's bribe in a couple of real estate transactions that resulted in money passing from Wade's hand to the Congressman's pocket. The most charitable interpretation of the facts, that this was just a strange set of financial decisions that only looked like a bribe in progress, still constitutes a House ethics violation: talk about "appearance of impropriety!"

But that's not all: Wade supplies Cunningham with his D.C. accommodations, allowing him to live on the contractor's 42 foot luxury yacht! And the yacht is named after him, an honor befitting an elected official who has admitted to channeling millions in defense funds to the yacht owner's company.

But "Duke" (the boat is named "Duke-ster") Cunningham says that he has done "nothing improper."

Translation: "You're an idiot."

"I would never put the interests of a friend or a contractor above the interests of my country," he said in a written defense of his conduct. "I want my constituents to know that, despite my personal friendship with Mr. Wade, I gave his company, MZM, no preferential treatment."

The only response to such transparent corruption is hysterical laughter followed by slapping hand-cuffs on Cunningham and treating him to a one-way ticket back to San Diego while he waits for his trial. If Cunningham is really so dense that he could accept both financial gain and gifts from a defense contractor that benefits directly from the decisions of his subcommittee and not realize that it would raise questions about his objectivity and integrity, he is too mentally challenged to be in Congress…and that is an appallingly low standard.

Citizens of San Diego, heed the call of The Ethics Scoreboard. Your representative, no matter what goodies his D.C. maneuvers bring to your fair city, is a disgrace to the Legislative branch of the U.S. Government…not the only one, to be sure (hence the "DeLay defense;" "I may be unethical, but I'm not the only one!") but an especially odious example of the arrogance and abuse of power. If his transparently false "bad judgement" excuse is allowed to keep him in his increasingly lucrative office, the message will go out to corrupt contractors across the nation: Congress is open for business, sale to the highest bidder.

The facts speak for themselves. Congressman Cunningham is on the take. It is imperative that he be thrown overboard, literally and figuratively.