Posted on 01/26/2007 7:22:41 PM PST by zendari
San Jose, Calif., January 25, 2007 -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband was a major beneficiary of military appropriations blessed by a subcommittee that she headed, Metro Newspapers reports this week.
Feinstein (D-Calif.) acted in a conflict of interest while approving billions of dollars in military construction expenditures for the global war on terror, according to an investigative story by award-winning journalist Peter Byrne. The story was published jointly in the North Bay Bohemian and Metro Silicon Valley weekly newspapers this week. Research assistance was provided by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.
Following Feinstein’s participation at the legislative level, large contracts were awarded to two firms — URS Corporation and Perini Corporation — that were controlled by an investment group headed by the senator’s spouse, financier Richard C. Blum.
Byrne's investigation reveals the following details about Feinstein’s service as a member of the United States Senate’s Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON).
(Excerpt) Read more at aan.org ...
(Yawn)... so what? The Pelosi-led corrupt-clean Democrats will have 90 excuses why this isn't an issue and the Republicans will again lack the guts to check it out and question it.
Nothing to see here. Bush lied, damnit...
You cannot impeach a senator, and there's no chance of Senate 2/3 expulsion.
"Standard operating procedure -- they might want to look into their Chinese business operations as well. Here we go again --- but don't expect their MSM to say much about it...needless to say."
Replace "much" with "anything" to be accurate.
Nope.
Yep. If everything is dropped and swept under the rug it looks reeeeal clean.
Anyone remember Ms. DiFi and 'Chocolate Mountain'?
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Oh yes, I remember :-) --- Nice try DiFi --- this one smelled so bad of fish, you could not get near it, but this is typical of libs and their criminal sleazy ways.
Surely this was just a clerical error and Feinstein will correct the error as soon as possible. We'll just deduct a brownie point for now and continue with business as usual. /sarc
bump
No...I didn't know about DiFi and the Chocolate Mountain....that article you posted was fascinating.
I am going to assume, since she is STILL a Senator, that nothing ever became of calls for an investigation into this matter, right?
The true culture of corruption, finally, rears its ugly head.
I guess it is good to have dreams, but make them realistic.
This story, like any other negative story about Dims, will go nowhere. Why?
Well we all know the media will ignore it. And, the Republicans will ignore it also as they have no backbone, no spine, no gonads.
I used to do a lot of government contract bids, and I hated seeing URS plans. I think URS stands for U Really SUCK!
Perini is a top notch construction outfit, though.
They will not. After all, this is a republican scandal as Dingy Harry would tell you.
Not that I've been able to find.
This new one will get brushed under the carpet just the same. Of that I have no doubt.
I don't know about that....
The Chocolate Mountain expose was before the Congress decided it would look good to pass an Ethics Reform Bill.
Now, as far as I know, the Ethics Bill is languishing in the Senate...or in conference right now..
However, with the big hoo-ha over the Abramoff scandal(s)..that helped to take down several Congressmen and a Senator, (I think Conrad Burns was included)...
I can't imagine that the GOP leadership would be SO DUMB, that they would let this story go away.
DiFi has been pretty outspoken about the "ethical problems" of the GOP lately...as have ALL of the Dems, especially Harry Reid, who got a LOT of money from Abramoff...but he didn't pay a price.
Surely the GOP aren't going to ignore this, are they?? (rhetorical)
Psst,...IMHO, it's only the tip of the iceburg and those in positions to report it already know those to whom it is reported merely loop the info back to those complicit but conveniently deniable in their positions. The mechanics were put into place early in Feinstein's career and reinforced in DC during Clinton's reign by others. It's an evolving beast. The question isn't who's corrupt, it's closer to who isn't corrupt and they tend to get targeted to take the blame. Go figure.
(Interesting feature of human degenerate character is that getting away with corruption never seems to find a point of satiation for those indulging in corruption, although the nation as a whole also degenerates slowly from the cost of corruption.)
Follow the money, the people who change companies but remained in the same industry/business model, the companies which won big contracts, sole source, design-build, then change their company names and have large reputations, but only on government contracts limited to a few agencies. The run the gamut from 'small businesses' which aren't so small to holding companies.
BTW, the real crooks who get away with charging 5x-10x the market price to construct on sole source awards, tend to get greedy over time even at those corrupt levels and their product quality actually diminishes commn sensically in time. One way to find them is to audit the MILCON appropriation documents by holding the facility owners accountable for the maintenance at the competivie market value. Those projects awarded at 5x-10x the actual construction cost will then become obvious to those who have to maintain them independent of those who contracted them and built them.
IMHO, the situation is so bad, that even if inspected and audited, one wouldn't be able to clean house and those who allowed it to happen are merely riding the wave to create a situation where other do-gooders will merely relieve them of accountability in their efforts to correct the situation.
Then again, you have to ask yourself, which is more corrupt, several Congress members swinging implied deals, approving projects before requirements were ever established, or building large MILCON BEQs on bases which finished construction less than a year before the base closed or as it closed such that nobody ever lived there, then it was torn down?
Color me skeptical.
Most honest and integrity-filled Congress EVER! Must've not gotten Pelosi's notes.
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