In his first big interview after coming under suspicion for bribing Duke Cunningham, Brent Wilkes told The New York Times last year that he’d been a victim of the system. “I played by their rules,” he said, “and I played to win.” If Brent Wilkes is under investigation, he was saying, everyone should be under investigation. It was a system of “transactional lobbying,” where lawmakers shook down those who were seeking government contracts.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=179784