who says you cant buy your senator???? Original Article Contractor guilty in bribery plot Mark Sherman Associated Press Feb. 25, 2006 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Mitchell Wade plied Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with a yacht, cash, cars, antiques and meals: more than $1 million in gifts over four years. It was a fabulous investment for Wade, at least in the short term. His company, MZM Inc., received more than $150 million in Defense Department contracts beginning in 2002. But on Friday, Wade pleaded guilty to conspiring with Cunningham, among four corruption charges that carry a maximum prison term of 20 years. "I take full responsibility for my actions," Wade told U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina of Washington. Cunningham, R-Calif., quit Congress last year after he pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Wade and others. Wade, MZM's former president, also admitted making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions in the names of MZM employees and their spouses to two other members of Congress, identifiable from Federal Election Commission records as Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., and Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla. Goode and Harris have said they would donate funds to charity in the amount of contributions they got from MZM. Among Wade's gifts to Cunningham was the purchase of the congressman's California home for a price inflated by $700,000. Cunningham, 64, used the money to move into a $2.55 million, five-bedroom, seven-bath mansion in the exclusive San Diego County community of Rancho Santa Fe. A bribe of $140,000 in the form of a 42-foot yacht, the Duke-Stir, brought Wade an offer of $16 million in contracts, according to Cunningham's sentencing memorandum, which calls for a 10-year prison term.