But Reid's take is small potatoes compared with the wheeling and dealing of another leading Senate Democrat, Rules Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of California. In her six years as ranking Democrat on the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittee, she "may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband," according to American Conservative Union head David Keene, writing in the Hill, a Washington newspaper, on Monday.

URS and Perini Corp., under the control of Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, apparently got more than $1.5 billion in government business largely from Feinstein's subcommittee.

"Interestingly, she left the subcommittee in late 2005 at about the same time her husband sold his stake in both companies," quips Keene. The sale appears to have increased the combined net worth of the power couple by 25%, to a total in excess of $40 million.

Is the SEC — not to mention another SEC, the Senate Ethics Committee — allergic to investigating Democrats?