Baker's Rap

The Washington Post has a new story on the limousine service that allegedly transported prostitutes, lawmakers, and spies (and don't forget the cigars) to "hospitality suites" in the Watergate Hotel and that received (after years of near-bankruptcy, legal actions, and service complaints) "two transportation contracts from the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 and 2005 worth $25 million."

"We categorically deny any involvement in, or connection, with prostitution," Sandy Roberts, an attorney for Christopher D. Baker, president of Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., said in a letter to The Washington Post. "Shirlington Limousine has never been a part of, nor involved in, any illicit or illegal activities that may have taken place in connection with Congressman Cunningham."

There's really no reason to believe that this Christopher Baker dude isn't just an honest man caught up in some malicious gossip. During the course of the last 25 years, it's clear that he's learned to tell the truth to his lawyers, given his "62-page rap sheet [obtained by Harper's Magazine] that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more."

I'm sure those were just "youthful indiscretions."

Update: Josh Marshall seems a tad more skeptical than I am after reviewing Baker's "history of bankruptcies and vehicle repossessions" and his "numerous misdemeanor and two felony convictions."