Randall Cunningham was born on 08 December 1941 in Los Angeles to Randall and Lela Cunningham. Randall grew up in California and Missouri. He graduated from Shelbina High School in 1959. He joined a school as a physical education teacher and a swimming coach. Eventually he joined the United States Navy and flew F-4 Phantom aircrafts. He emerged as one of the most highly decorated pilots of the United States Navy.

He joined the Top Gun School and was also a commentator for the CNN. He won the Republican nomination in 1990 and won by defeating Democrat Jim Bates. He attracted a lot of attention and respect from the media because of his status as a war veteran. He became very famous for his political actions and utterances.

This first time Randall got into trouble was when his son was caught for peddling Cocaine from Massachusetts to California. His son was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. After this a major scandal erupted wherein he was found to have indulged in bribery in awarding defense contracts. A paper on which he had written the amount of bribe to be taken in his own hand was subsequently produced as evidence. Other famous cases were his possession of a house and a yacht by using unfair means. On 28 November 2005 Randall Harold Cunningham pleaded guilty to committing bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud in federal court in San Diego. By pleading guilty he escaped going under bars for the rest of his life.

This scandal of 1992 involved not only hundreds of politicians but also their bank. It revealed that these politicians continued to overdraw money from their bank and were not penalized for it. It was also known as the Rubbergate.

The House Bank functioned under very loose regulations and did not use a computerized system to track its operations. A practice which being followed by the House Bank was, to permit the House members to overdraw their accounts by an amount equal to one month’s pay check.. The House Bank failed to keep a regular track of the over drawls and the politicians took advantage to draw huge sums as over draft.

The House banking scandal involved more than 450 representatives and was enquired into by the House Ethics Committee. Twenty-two congressmen and -women were indicted by the House Ethics Committee for overdrawing money for as long as 8 months.

Up to 77 representatives were either thrown out or defeated in elections as a fall out of this financial scandal. Former Rep. Donald Lukens (R-OH) was convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. Former Rep. Carl C. Perkins (D-KY), Former Rep. Carroll Hubbard, Jr. (D-KY), Former Rep. Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH) and Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-DC) pled guilty to felony.

It is election time and fund raising is in full swing. (more…)