http://www.qando.net/ - So will Democrats investigate this?

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.

How eager do you suppose the Democratic leadership will be to look into this? And is she resigning because of that and what could possibly happen, or is her work done?

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose 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?

This is pretty blatant stuff. Obviously if AG Gonzales is on the hot-seat and under investigation for doing something which all agree is well within the rights of the AG to do, no matter how mishandled, this would seem to me to be a clear case where investigation is warranted.

And while hubby may now be out of the military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing business as of 2005, companies in which he owns a billion dollars in stock have done quite well by Ms. Feinstein's committee:

As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum's financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

* Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.

* Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.

* CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.

Noncompetative bids? Why I thought that was only something from which Haliburton benefitted.

I await the clamor from the leftosphere for a Congressional investigation into the "culture of corruption".

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Wasn’t the USA in Feinstein home district one of those fired by DOJ ?
Lam .. I believe.

Was there a tit-for-tat with a quiet resignation by Feinstein in January in return for a "fired" USA ?

Written By: Neo
URL: http://

So Feinstein is a war profiteer?

Time for Code Pink and Mother Sheehan to stage a sit in...

Written By: shark
URL: http://

2 L’s in Halliburton. We didn’t spend 4 years stealing Iraqi oil (even though we don’t actually buy or sell oil at all) to have people spelling our name wrong.

Written By: Halliburton Employee
URL: http://www.halliburton.com

Since Feinstein was questioning Lam’s performance, I am quietly confident that Leahy will be calling for her to testify before Congress: in public, under oath, with a transcript, with no limit to the area of questions. I mean, he’s a fair guy and should want to show his ahem bi-partisanship.

Written By: Uncle Pinky
URL: http://

If it’s Republican you can expect Congress to investigate it. When you have no ideas of your own, your best course of action is point fingers at your opposition. Democrats have been out of power and they are mad. They are more interested in getting even than doing good. There is one bight light, while they are investigating, they are too busy to pass legislation, and that is a good thing for the country.

Written By: James E. Fish
URL: http://faroutfishfiles.blogspot.com/

Let me see. Senator Feinstein questioned US attorney Lam’s performance but attacks the AG for getting rid of her; Mrs. Feinstein has had a permit to carry, but doesn’t want you to have one. Senator Feinstein condemns the corruption of the Republicans but seems to have the same affliction. No hypocrisy here, move along folks. We will see no investigation and no resignation. We have had this type of corruption throughout our country’s history, usually by our professional political class. In the information age it is somewhat easier to ferret out the corruption, but little seems to come of it. We, the citizens, never seem to learn that it usually takes a while for politicians to learn the ropes enough to figure out how to quietly use the system. So if you want to fight congressional corruption, two words; term limits.

Written By: AMR
URL: http://

After reading the comments about this story on Digg, It was blissful to puruse the comments on QandO. Ahhh... :)

Written By: krouskop
URL: http://

Since you mention Code Pink, Medea Benjamin actually ran against Feinstein in 2000, under the Green Party . . . obviously, that was about as effective at dislodging an entrenched career politician as sit-ins or getting dragged out of Congressional hearings by security are, but it’s something, anyway.

That segment of liberals, like much of America at the moment, is allied with the Dems right now because of opposition to the Bush agenda, not out of any delusions of Dem purity or nobility of purpose.

Too bad the old bag’s in until 2012 now. Hopefully, she just won’t run again.

Written By: catastrophile
URL: http://catastrophile.blogspot.com/

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