Bam! With the retirement of Porter Goss as head of the CIA on a Friday, I think a certain scandal is about to hit the big time :

The Wall Street Journal reported today that indicted former California Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham may not have limited his good times to partying on a rented yacht. It turns out the FBI is currently investigating two defense contractors who allegedly provided Cunningham with free limousine service, free stays at hotel suites at the Watergate and the Westin Grand, and free prostitutes.

The two defense contractors who allegedly bribed Cunningham, said the Journal, were Brent Wilkes, the founder of ADCS Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc.; both firms profited greatly from their connections with Cunningham. The Journal also suggested that other lawmakers might be implicated. I’ve learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees—including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.

A CIA spokeswoman called the speculation that Goss was partying with prostitutes “flatly untrue”, so I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that he’s resigning out of the blue a week later. They always save the most embarassing news for Friday afternoons…

UPDATE : I knew they’d try to play this off like another White House “shake-up” story. I’m with Josh Marshall on this one :

And the talking heads on CNN were speculating whether Goss’s departure might be part of Josh Bolten’s ‘new blood’ shake up in the Bush administration. I don’t suppose it anything to do with the fact that Goss is neck deep in the Wilkes-Corruption-and-Hookers story that’s been burbling in the background all week. We don’t know definitely why Goss pulled the plug yet. But the CIA Director doesn’t march over to the White House and resign, effective immediately, unless something very big is up.

My guess is this has something to do with the news that, according to TPM Muckraker, the Watergate Hotel “has received multiple subpoenas in connection with the Wilkes Hookergate scandal.”