Will Feinstein Be Investigated?
From The Hill we read a re-cap of what some of us have known about Dianne Feinstein’s shenanigans but has not been made public in many newspapers, if any.
Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.
If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.
The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.
In other words, it appears Sen. Feinstein was up to her ears in the same sort of shenanigans that landed California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R) in the slammer. Indeed, it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his state’s senior senator.
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, or CREW, usually focuses on the ethical lapses of Republicans and conservatives, but even she is appalled at the way Sen. Feinstein has abused her position. Sloan told a California reporter earlier this month that while”there are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest … because of the amount of money involved, Feinstein’s conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts.”
Her chief legal adviser says he gave the information to Sen. Feinstein’s chief of staff so she could recuse herself from any conflict of interest issues. Except she didn’t recuse herself. And, more important, her chief legal adviser was a business partner of her husband’s.
During this period the two companies, URS of San Francisco and the Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass., were controlled by Feinstein’s husband, Richard C. Blum, and were awarded a combined total of over $1.5 billion in government business thanks in large measure to her subcommittee. That’s a lot of money even here in Washington.
Interestingly, she left the subcommittee in late 2005 at about the same time her husband sold his stake in both companies. Their combined net worth increased that year with the sale of the two companies by some 25 percent, to more than $40 million.
In spite of the blatant appearance of corruption, no major publication has picked up on the story, the Senate Ethics Committee has reportedly let her slip by, and she is now chairing the Senate Rules Committee, which puts her in charge of making sure her colleagues act ethically and avoid the sorts of conflicts of interest with which she is personally and so obviously familiar.
When do the ethics committee hearings begin on Sen. Feinstein? Will she get the Cunningham treatment or will the double standard apply and she’ll get a slap on the wrist?
I have nothing against Sen. Feinstein personally. She seems to be an intelligent woman, but if she did something crooked she should be forced to face the charges and pay the penalty, and the penalty should be severe.
If this is as solid as claimed she should be booted out of the Senate and sent to prison someplace. I take this stand whether it’s a Republican or Democrat. You break the law and use congressional chairmanships for your own personal gain, that makes you a crooked politician.
We were promised the most ethical congress in history when this congress took over. They’ve talked the talk; now let’s see them walk the walk.
Written by ~J~
Cal Says:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:31 amVisit Cal
Not going to happen. The Republican Party is on the way out and until they are back in power, Maybe in 20 years, it’s just not going to happen. There is a new book coming out by Cato scholar Michael Tanner called Leviathan On the Right. Might help to understand what’s going on with the Party. This isn’t meant to be a nasty comment. It’s reality. The same thing happened to the Dems.
Cal Says:
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:34 amVisit Cal
I don’t know any ethical politicians . Left or right.
~J~ Says:
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:18 amVisit ~J~
Cal,
I was wondering if you agree that if these allegations have any truth to them or warrant an investigation if you would support one even if the Dems won’t do it? Thanks.
Cal Says:
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:40 amVisit Cal
I sure would