The politicking that sent former San Diego Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison is still going on in the nation's capital. That's what reporter Marcus Stern says about the process of earmarks. Congress uses earmarks to allocate money for specific projects. Some are controversial because of their cost or the frivolous nature of the project. Earmarks also provide an easy way for politicians to get kickbacks, because there's less public scrutiny over the process.
Stern, speaking on KPBS radio's "These Days" program, says recently-elected members of Congress haven't kept their pledge to end corruption.
Stern : So they had something of a mandate when they got here to make some changes. And unfortunately, the signs, if you listen to them, yeah, it sounds like they're very reform-minded. If you look at what they're doing -- in fact they're sort of dragging their feet and there's not a lot of reform taking place.
Former Republican Congressman Cunningham was convicted of accepting bribes for securing military contracts for friends through the earmark process. Stern is one of a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for their work on the Cunningham story, which is chronicled in their book "The Wrong Stuff."
