Congressman John Doolittle (CA-4) is a longtime proponent of eviscerating our country's campaign finance laws. Perhaps not coincidentally, Doolittle is at or near the top of the list of politicians with financial connections to two men at the center of the congressional scandals: Jack Abramoff and Brent Wilkes.

Rep. Doolittle and Brent Wilkes

Brent Wilkes is one of two defense contractors whose ties and bribes to former congressman Duke Cunningham led to Cunningham's resignation from Congress and guilty plea to corruption charges in November 2005. Wilkes and his fellow conspirators gave the Duke some $2.4 million in cash and gifts in exchange for Cunningham steering them defense contracts.

Aside from Cunningham, Rep. John Doolittle did more to put taxpayer dollars in Brent Wilkes' pocket than any other elected official, earmarking $37 million for Wilkes' company PerfectWave Technologies in 2003-5. Doolittle initiated the funding despite the fact that the Department of Defense did not ask for the program.

As Doolittle was helping to make Brent Wilkes rich, Wilkes was busy filling Doolittle's campaign warchest. Wilkes and his associates gave Doolittle $134,000 from 2002-5, the largest amount to any public official at any level of government. Because Doolittle's wife Julie gets paid a 15% commission on Doolittle's fundraising, a healthy chunk of the Wilkes contributions ended up in the Doolittle family bank account.

Congressman gets rich off contributor? Contributor gets rich off Congressman? Doolittle sees nothing wrong with that.

Despite repeated assertions by Doolittle and his spokesperson that he has received only $4,000 from Abramoff, Doolittle has received a total of $14,000 from Abramoff personally, including a $10,000 contribution from Abramoff in October 2000, the single largest contribution to any politician from the former lobbyist.

Rep. Doolittle's wife Julie has cashed in on his fundraising success, making upwards of $200,000 for Sierra Dominion Financial Services, the fundraising firm she runs out of the Doolittles' home in Virginia. Her position as her husband's fundraiser means that 15% of contributions to Doolittle's political committees ends up in the family bank account. Rep. Doolittle's Abramoff connections also landed Julie a job working for Abramoff's charity, the Capital Athletic Foundation.

Doolittle's former staffer Kevin Ring has also benefitted from his former employer's relationship with Abramoff, landing a plum lobbying job with Abramoff's firm after leaving the employ of Doolittle, and receiving nearly $200,000 from Mchael Scanlon, who helped Abramoff defraud several native American tribes of millions of dollars..

From all appearances, something is rotten in the 4th Congressional District of California.