Feinstein -- A Test of Democrats' Commitment to Punishing Corruption

[Overpaid Slacker]

The new Congress has barely made it past its start before a new face has been put on lobbyist influence. Dianne Feinstein, the senior Senator from California, has resigned her leadership position on a subcommittee which put billions of dollars into her family's business (via QandO):

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. ...

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.

Wasn't it the Democrats who insisted that the Republicans jumped into bed with lobbyists and special interests? Well, now we have a senior Democrat who made sure that over a billion dollars of federal money got routed through her own checkbook, with her husband as proxy. When can we expect to see a Democratic investigation into this brand of corruption?

During the 2006 election, Feinstein's party made a lot of hay out of non-competitve contracting by the government. Democrats railed especially about Halliburton, even though Halliburton won 95% of its contract dollars by full and open competition. Now we see that Feinstein herself had no problem with non-competitive practices, as long as it meant stuffing her own pockets with taxpayer money. Take a look at the percentages in the above. In 2005, CB Richard Ellis made $100 million in federal contracts , only half of which had been part of full and open competitive bidding.

When we talk about political corruption, this is exactly what we mean. Politicians who use their power and assignments to fill their own pockets with federal dollars corrupt our system and deserve to be tried in court for violating the public trust. Feinstein never should have sat on subcommittees that hand out federal contracts for markets in which her own family businesses compete. If the Democrats meant what they said in 2006, Feinstein provides an excellent test case for their new sense of ethics. They should expel her from the Senate and have California hold a special election to replace her. If they do nothing, then they have exposed themselves as the party of self-enrichment at the expense of taxpayers. [via Captain's Quarters]

Waiting for the front-page, above-the-fold headlines for two weeks on every major newspaper..... but not holding my breath.

JP

[Rick Lee]

Feinstein is probably the richest person in the US Senate, but maybe Jay Rockefeller. She doesn't need the money. Her husband owns and controls so much, I don't know how she could do her job and not have some kind of conflict of interest. I disagree with her on every single issue, especially guns, but I don't think she's doing this for the money.

[Joeaksa]

Wonder where all the liberals are here on this post? On Ramp, Supe and so on? Cat got your tongue?

Where are you guys? You know, the ones who are always jumping up and down every time something is said about the conservatives getting rich off of the govt, yet here we have one of your highest leaders doing the same through "no bid" govt contracts to her husband and you guys are silent for some reason.

Both sides make me sick in this area and its another reason to kick the lot out and start over. TERM LIMITS!!!

Joe

[Tobra]

She is not as shady as Willie Brown. Longtime Demoncrat Tzar of California legislature.

He ran the committee on toxic waste and the one on waste management in the State Senate, while at the same time collecting a retainer from the three largest waste companies as their attorney in his private practice. When confronted about a potential conflict of interest, he immediately played the race card(you are persecuting me because I am black) denied any potential conflict of interest and continued representing the companies in question and staying on as head of commitees with oversight.

Willie Brown is why California has term limits. They were instituted for him.

I don't have any senators in DC representing my interests, DiFi and Boxer in the senate, Doris Freakin' Matsui on the other side, yikes

[Rick Lee]

Oh, Willie Brown is a whole 'nother chapter in upcoming book "Crooks and A$sholes".

[stevepaa]

JP, that is quite a stretch for you. No money was stuffed into her pockets.

Blum Capital Partners, which is headquartered in San Francisco, utilizes private equity and strategic block transactions to invest in both public and private companies.

A representative sample of our investment portfolio includes:

CB Richard Ellis (world's leading commercial real estate services firm);

Janus Capital Group Inc. (asset management with expertise in growth and risk-managed funds);

ITT Educational Services, Inc. (leading provider of technology-oriented postsecondary degree programs);

Avid Technology, Inc. (leading provider of digital media creation tools for film, video, audio, animation, games and broadcast professionals - as well as for home video and audio enthusiasts);

Kinetic Concepts (global medical device company with leadership positions in advanced wound care and therapeutic sufraces).


Gee, a huge investment firm owns stock in a lot of companies, and some win defense contracts. However, there is not even a hint she engaged in any deceit.

Klein said that he regularly gave Feinstein's chief of staff, Mark Kadesh, lists of Perini's current and upcoming contractual interests in federal legislation, so that the senator would not discuss, debate, vote on or participate in matters that could affect projects in which Perini was concerned.

"Earmarks, you know, set asides, you name it, there was a system in place which on a regular basis I got notified, I notified her office and her office notified her," Klein said.

"We basically identified any bid that Perini was going for and checked to see whether it was the subject of already appropriated funds or funds yet to be appropriated, and if it was anything that the senator could not act on, her office was alerted and she did not act on it." .

According to Klein, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics ruled, in secret, that Feinstein did not have a conflict of interest with Perini because, due to the existence of the bid and project lists provided by Klein, she knew when to recuse herself. Klein says that after URS declined to participate in his conflict of interest prevention plan, the ethics committee ruled that Feinstein could act on matters that affected URS, because she did not have a list of URS' needs.


Go search for another windmill. This is merely a mirage.

[john70t]

Agreed. Dirty stinking, rotten, corrupt politicians.

But then Feinstein and Pelosi are republicans

[Tobra]

Plain and simple Steve, she had a conflict of interest for 6 years and resigned her position when folks start giving it the sniff test.

If she is so above board on this, why resign? When Willie Brown had his conflict of interest with waste management, he never resigned, he just started yelling that he was being persecuted as a poor black man, buttoned the jacket of his $2500 suit and went and got in his Ferrari Testarossa

[stevepaa]

Plain and simple, you should read what I posted.

It was a smear campaign without merit that has been going on for some time. http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/03.14.07/byrne-0711.html
Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005.

But the campaign continued. I think she just decided it was time for someone else to do that job, and she will do something else.

And yeah, it did not pass the sniff test for those with a nose for it, or axe to grind.


Let's see, except for having them put all their holdings in a blind trust, they did the next best thing. As Blum was the lead for his team, putting everything in a blind trust would be abrogating his responsibility to his investors.

More from the muckraker

On the face of it, there is nothing objectionable about a senator closely examining proposed appropriations or advocating for missile defense or advancing the cleanup of a toxic military base. Blum profitably divested himself of ownership of both URS and Perini in 2005, ameliorating the conflict of interest. But Feinstein's ethical dilemma arose from the fact that, for five years, the interests of Perini and URS and CB Richard Ellis were inextricably entwined with her leadership of MILCON, which last year approved $16.2 billion for military construction projects.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, remarks, "There are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest. [California Republican Congressman John T.] Doolittle, for example, hired his wife as a fundraiser, and she skimmed 15 percent off of all campaign contributions. Others, like [former] Speaker [Dennis] Hastert and Cong. [Ken] Calvert were earmarking federal money for roads to enhance the value of property held by their families.

"But because of the amount of money involved," Sloan continues, "Feinstein's conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts."


Yeah right.

[Rick Lee]

Melanie Sloan is a die-hard Dem and her outfit goes after Republicans almost exclusively. Anyway, Doolittle's wife didn't "skim" 15% off the top. She was paid that as a commission with no base salary and that's totally in line with what professional fundraisers make around here. She'll probably just move on to doing the same thing for some other Congressman and then all the spouse-fundraisers will just start working for non-spouses' campaigns and there will be no real change. The nepotism is a little hokey and the fact that Doolittle is still holding "debt retirement" fundraisers, all of which go to pay his wife, does not good. But Sloan is "skimming" over Feinstein's transgressions because her outfit doesn't want to ever harm Dems.

[Tobra]

but I did read what you wrote Steve

Plain and simple, if 'twas al above board, why would she resign? Innocent people act innocent.