Politics as usual

[TexKan]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by the Bohemian's exposÈ of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction; it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.

Two years ago, before the Washington Post became belatedly involved, the online magazine Salon.com exposed the horrors of deficient medical care for Iraq War veterans. While leading MILCON, Feinstein had ample warning of the medical-care meltdown. But she was not proactive on veteran's affairs.

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases--often without the benefit of competitive bidding--to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.



News & Culture in The North Bay | The Byrne Report


Waiting for the "investigation" regarding the millions of $$ that went into hubby's checkbook

[Highwayman]

Another abuse of power scandal! The Senate needs to hold hearings for months, put people under oath and keep transcripts so we can get to the truth! If she’s not guilty she can come in and try to prove it, damn it!

Ain’t that the way it works?

She’s a Democrat so don’t hold your breath.

[TexKan]

I knew you would catch that!! LOL LOL........ I just thought with all the hoo rah rah of all this nonsense that you Hiway would and could enjoy this!...... kinda like a little sunshine on a gloomy day ain't it????..............LOL

[Highwayman]

There’s plenty of crap that the Dems are doing but I just haven’t had time to hunt down links are post it. We need it to balance out the lopsided amount of bash Bush threads that get started by one left wing partisan that’s in full attack mode.

Thanks Texie!

[Army_of_One]

Wait a minute...isn't this the same Democratic group that ran on returning ethics and honesty to the House and Senate...I guess I will have to spend some time trying to figure this one out. Feinstein is the first one to want to grill someone and investigate when there is a wrong doing....I guess she should worry about her own house before she throws stones towards someone elses...

[TexKan]

I'm just trying to be fair and balanced!!!! LOL LOL Actually I heard about that on RL (he comes onto my radio station of choice at noon- altho he's not my fav)........ I listen to lots of radio and many different views.......... but I did find this rather interesting considering who she is and how vocal she has been in the past about corruption! I figure that's just one of those.....oooopps!!!! There are plenty of em on both sides and I too felt it was time for some other posting. Ya'll been gettin slamed lately!