Will the political left in positions of power lead the charge to investigate the possible wrongdoings of Diane Feinstein in her capacity as chairperson or ranking minority member of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction?
They'd better or the GOP is going to rip the Democrats to shreds with it.
I haven't been on this blog much, so I don't know if this percolating scandal was aired in here last week.
Metroactive News (in an investigation which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute) has uncovered the fact that billions of dollars of federal contracts have landed in the businesses of Diane Feinstein's husband, Richard C. Blum.
Now if this was a Cheney we were talking about, or some other Republican in elective office, we'd all be screaming our heads off for an investigation and resignation or impeachment, wouldn't we?
Metro News, a California based publication and website, did the correct thing in investigating the actions of Senator Feinstein and reporting them accurately. There is a whole laundry list of connections between the subcommittee she chaired or sat upon as ranking minority member until last week, and huge defense contracts that were awarded to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.
$185 million to reinforce roofs of military buildings in Iraq.
$600 million for services for U.S. Army bases that included anti-terrorism force protection.
$42 million for a maintenance facility for the C-17 Hickam Air Base in Hawaii.
All of this money, and more, was appropriated by a senate subcommittee chaired and sat upon as ranking minority member by Diane Feinstein and awarded to companies owned by her husband.
And it gets worse -
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.
There is scarce to no coverage of these facts so far today. I saw a crawl on the TV, and there is NOTHING in the New York Times or LA Times yet. There is, to date, only a little coverage on leftblogs, according to a quick search.
Unless these matters are investigated and reported on in an honest way, Feinstein, and the Democrats in the legislative majority, are going to look like overworked voo-doo dolls when the GOP gets done pinning everything that's going bad in this country on them.
Face it - If Diane Feinstein's last name was Cheney, we'd be foaming at the mouths like rabid wolves. If Feinstein's hubbie worked for Halliburton we'd be screaming "Off with Their Heads!"
I guarantee you if Democrats don't lead the charge the GOP is going to take up the call for a full-scale investigation of the hawkish senator from California and they are going to load every bit of scandal and malfeasance, every whiff of corruption that is wafting around Washington D.C. at this moment, onto the backs of Diane Feinstein and the Democratic majority in the House and the Senate.
I guarantee you that if we don't all call for and receive a coherent and honest assessment of accountability and responsibility that the GOP is going to take Diane Feinstein apart slowly enough to scuttle the Democratic candidate for president next year.
The GOP will bludgeon Clinton's or Obama's bid to death using the carcass of Feinstein's career unless the Democrats and the political left takes this seriously.
This scandal is in Kos's backyard - He needs to weigh in on it and do the correct thing, even though Feinstein is a Democrat.
And so do we all.
UPDATE: Thanks to standingup who has provided a link in the commentary to the original Metroactive news item in which there more extensive quotes by watchdog groups, including by the executive director of the Center for Public Integrity. Thanks to standingup for providing this link and commentary below.
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: Please see bolded revisions in the diary that pertain to Diane Feinstein's status as chairperson or ranking minority member due to the problems several commentors experienced in understanding the meaning or intention of my diary. I hope the revision helps clear the way for them to acknowledge the validity of my main points - that Democrats should lead the charge to investigate Diane Feinstein if she's misused her senatorial privileges and responsibilities and that we all need ethical leaders on both sides of the aisle and that investigation may be in order when either Republicans or Democrats use their power illegally or unethically.