Senator Dianne Feinstein, War “Profiteeress”

Wow, talk about a “culture of corruption. Hoo boy this is a big one. Duke Cunningham stand aside, Halliburton…to the back of the line, here comes Senator/Chairman Dianne Feinstein. Who says blondes and men have all the fun? Sorry for the length of this one folks but it’s just too juicy to give it short shrift.

Feinstein was forced to “resign” her position of Chair of the Senate Military Appropriations Subcommittee this week.

”If you missed this, don’t blame it on the Conservative media; blame it on the absolute silence of the MSM (Paleo-media). A quick but careful search of both the New York Lies, and the Washington Pest webpages revealed…zero, nada, riente, zippo, absolutely no mention of Feinstein’s decision to step down or of the scandal evolving around her (hey, and you thought there was no such thing as evolution).

I would guess that they have been so busy concentrating on their primary obligations as propaganda ministries for the Democrat Party that this “small” story just “slipped under the radar.”…Uh-huh.

Seems that Senator Feinstein (Our Lady DiFi of the Most Holy See of California) gained much of her wealth from some rather shady dealings in which her husband, Richard C. Blum, owner of two major defense contractors was awarded $ Billions-yes that’s Billions with a “B” in military construction contacts which she approved.

That’s right folks, Senator Feinstein has profited immensely from contracts that she personally awarded to her husband’s companies.

The Silicon Valleys weekly newspaper, “Metroactive” reported on April 28th of this year that Madame Chairwoman Feinstein:

“As MILCON leader Feinstein…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 Metro's exposé 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…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.” [Emphasis added]

I am certain that you are not “shocked” by this paragon of Liberal virtue’s hypocrisy, it seems to be de rigueur for those on the Left, but you may be surprised to learn of it at all, given the Liberal media’s complete blackout concerning this huge scandal.

On March 18th of this year, Madame DiFi was interviewed by Bob Sheiffer on CBS’ “Face the Nation” regarding Attorney General Gonzales’ firing of 8 U.S. District Attorneys. I find it interesting to read what she stated at that time, given the immensity of this scandal.

CBS News’ Webpage has the following"

"Inconvenient" U.S. Attorneys Fired?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein Says Attorneys Working Major Corruption Cases Were Let Go

WASHINGTON D.C., March 18, 2007
“Feinstein said Carol Lam was fired after she sent a notice to the Justice Department that she had a case against Dusty Foggo, a defense contractor. "The next day, an e-mail went from the Justice Department to the White House saying 'We have a real problem with Carol Lam,'" Feinstein told Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer.

"All I'm saying, as the evidence comes in, as we look at the e-mails, there were clearly U.S. attorneys that were thorns in the side — for one reason or another — of the Justice Department. And they decided, by strategy, in one fell swoop, to get rid of seven of them on that day, December the 7th."

Lady DiFi has been on the forefront of the attacks against Attorney General Gonzales, and now perhaps we know why. Is it possible that Lady DiFi was just being “proactive” in protecting herself from investigation?

The press just couldn’t say enough about Randall Duke Cunningham’s story and the $2.4 million in “bribes” he was convicted of taking, Even being a real war hero (unlike those the Democrats like to trot out during election time) was not enough to insulate him from the barrage of hate and self-righteous indignation meted out by the press and especially by his colleagues in Congress. Cunningham was sentenced to 8 years for his transgressions.

BBC news added this on the Cunningham story:

District Judge Larry Burns asked why Cunningham took such a course.

"You weren't wet. You weren't cold. You weren't hungry and yet you did these things," he said.
"I think what you've done is you've undermined the opportunity that honest politicians have to do a good job."

Washington historian Fred W Beuttler told the Associated Press that Cunningham's corruption was the worst in the history of Congress.

"In the sheer dollar amount, he is the most corrupt," he said.

Prosecutor Phil Halpern said Cunningham helped award contracts that squandered millions of dollars on "systems the military didn't ask for, didn't need and frequently didn't use".

What Cunningham did was kid’s play compared to that of which Feinstein and her husband stand accused. I wonder if Fred W. Beuttler will now amend his statement about Cunningham to say, “except for that of Senator Feinstein?” I wonder if Judge Larry Burns will say the same thing about Senator Feinstein’s abuses that he said in reference to Randy Cunningham’s?

Democrats have been blaming President Bush for the conditions at the veterans hospitals including Walter Reed, perhaps they need to look a little closer to home; seems Ms. Senator “self-righteous” Feinstein has been dipping into that Federal till as well.

$2.4 Million for “Duke?”

Try these numbers out for size [again from “Metroactive]”

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.

Now that’s what I call corruption with a capital “C” (or is that D.N.C?)

Eight years for Cunningham, what are we going to see for Feinstein, 15? 20? I wouldn’t bet on it folks. I’ll be surprised if this even makes it into the court system.

I tell you people, between Harry “the Real Estate Tycoon” Reid and Dianne “the War Profiteeress” Feinstein, Democrats don’t have a leg to stand on in accusing Republicans of corruption considering the pikers they have turned out to be.

From “WorldNetDaily” comes this gem:

from 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup work approved by MILCON, while Perini collected $759 million for the same.

Feinstein's annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports record sizeable family income from investments in the Framingham, Mass.-based Perini and the San Francisco-located URS. But there was no acknowledgment of any conflict of interest, according to Metroactive, a "Northern California meta-site" that specializes in arts and entertainment information from area publications: Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper; Metro Santa Cruz; and the North Bay Bohemian.

Byrne also reported Michael R. Klein, an adviser to Feinstein and business partner with Blum, said that starting in 1997 he routinely told Feinstein about federal projects coming before her in which Perini had a stake, in order for her to avoid those votes and as such, a conflict of interest.

However, instead of withholding a vote, she did act on those pieces of legislation, Byrne reported. Ultimately, "the Congressional Record shows that as chairperson and ranking member of MILCON, Feinstein was often involved in supervising the legislative details of military construction projects that directly affected Blum's defense-contracting firms," Byrne's report said.

Whatever happened to that “More ethical, more open government that the Democrats promised?

Where is the “unbiased” mainstream media I keep hearing Liberals refer to on this?

Where is the Attorney General’s office on this?

Where is the Congressional Budget Office on this?

Where is the Senate Ethics Committee on this?

Why is a scandal this big not currently the “talk of the town” in D.C. media circles?

Come to think of it, why is William Jefferson, D. La. still not under indictment for his “cold” hard cash dealings?

Democrat Party-Ethics? I’m surprised they can even get the two words out without being struck by lightning.

Long Live Our American Republic!

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