The wonderful thing about the Golden Age in which we live is that so much information is now easily accessible to the public. If you are licensed to do anything by a state agency (or not, as the case may be), a few clicks with a mouse will provide you the basic data lickety-split.

And so it is with the family friend and retainer of Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Elizabeth Todd. Those of you who have visited Talking Points Memo recently may have heard the name in connection with her role in the mysterious sale of his home two years ago to a defense contractor, Mitchell Wade, on whose yacht the GOP Congressman lives while in Washington. As you may know, Mr. Wade purchased his friend's home, in a straight cash transaction, for $1.675 million; Mr. Wade then waited several months to resell the property for $975,000, a loss of almost 42%. Even in this inflated market, that whole transaction seemed rather unseemly. Ms. Todd provided the comps for the sale that are now under scrutiny by the FBI.

As the San Diego Union-Tribune pointed out a couple of days ago, Ms. Todd has been licensed by the state since April, 2002, and her subsequent sale of a home to Representative Cunningham the following year was her first-ever deal. But what the article only mentions in passing is that, in fact, Elizabeth Todd is not a licensed real estate broker, at least according to the state. She is a licensed salesperson.

The difference between the two licenses is enormous. A broker must have at least two years of real estate experience, take numorous college-level courses and pass a rigorous exam to be licensed. A salesperson, on the other hand, may have no experience, needs to pass only three courses and a relatively simple exam, but must work under the supervision of a broker in any deal in which she participates. In other words, her position is equivalent to that of a paralegal or clerk at a law office.

So anything she did concerning the sale of the original Cunningham manse, including providing comps, would have to be first vetted by someone else, a broker (state records indicate that she is employed by The Willis Allen Co., whose CEO, Andrew Nelson, contributed over $15 grand to GOP causes (incl. the Duke) in the last election cycle). Maybe that will exonerate her, but, in any event, the plot thickens....