Council-member David Catania (I-At Large) may have some explaining to do.

Yesterday we received a juicy tidbit that might prove that Catania — a maverick legislator known for his fierce independence and intellectual capacity — received money from two of Washington’s least popular characters.

Joshua Micah Marchall of Talking Points Memo fame yesterday wrote that Catania received campaign money from Mitch Wade, former owner of MZM, Inc., a defense and intelligence firm. MZM was closely linked to Rep. Duke Cunningham, a California Republican recently indicted for accepting some $2.4 million in bribes from three defense contractors, one of them being MZM. According to Marshall, in 2002 Wade gave Catania’s re-election campaign two $1000 checks; Wade’s wife gave another $1000; MZM PAC gave $1000 more; and the Eagle Group, a 527 organization linked to MZM, threw in a cool $1000 of its own.