More from the MILCON Valley

This from the Monterrey Herald

Bloggers and activists are writing a new chapter in the marriage between Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and husband Richard Blum.

Feinstein has real power. Blum has serious money. For 27 married years, the politician and the investor have excelled professionally while facing periodic queries about Blum's far-flung investments.

The latest round now comes powered by the Internet, fanned by activists on both right and left. The partisans find common cause in questioning Feinstein's role in Pentagon spending while Blum was investing in defense firms.

Critics have accused Feinstein of having a conflict of interest by serving through last year as chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate's military construction appropriations subcommittee at the same time that her husband had financial interests in two firms that rely on defense contracts.

The Senate panel approves some $16 billion annually for military construction projects.
Until 2005, Blum had major holdings in two firms, URS Corp. and Perini Corp., that rely on defense contracts.

Perini received $200 million in federal contracts from 2000 to 2006, primarily with the Army, according to records compiled by the private watchdog group OMB Watch. URS received $1.8 billion worth of contracts -- primarily Air Force, Army and Navy -- during the same period.
Feinstein's spokesman, Scott Gerber, declared that the senator has always "acted appropriately" and within the Senate's ethics guidelines. He sternly denounced suggestions of conflict, first raised in articles published in the Bay Area's free Metro weekly newspaper, and noted that the Pentagon, not Congress, decides who is awarded contracts.

"The story is filled with inaccuracies, errors and distortions," Gerber said, "and it has been pushed by the right-wing bloggers."

Actually, the story has migrated from left to right and back again.

It was the left's turn again, when female anti-war protesters gathered outside Feinstein's San Francisco home. Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin declared that Feinstein and Blum "have profited from this war" in Iraq.

MILCON It For All Its Worth - Part 3

More on the purported Dianne Feinstein scandal

"Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber. In fact, she had already left the panel before the reports were published in late January.

"It is nonsense to suggest Sen. Feinstein resigned from the military construction subcommittee," Gerber told Cybercast News Service Tuesday. "At the beginning of Congress, following the historic shift in power, Sen. Feinstein had the opportunity to be the chair of the interior appropriations subcommittee."

This Senate panel offered her more ways to help the state of California, Gerber said, adding, "She is still on the full defense appropriations subcommittee."

Feinstein's service on the committee never presented a conflict of interest, Gerber said, because she didn't have the power to direct contracts to her husband's business or any other company.

"Sen. Feinstein never sought to award military contracts," Gerber said. "That procedure is done by the defense department. Congress plays no role in that process."

That's only technically true, said Kenneth Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog group. He said Tuesday it was disingenuous for Feinstein's office to claim she had no role in awarding contracts.

"The Pentagon does award contracts, but when the Pentagon wants money it goes to the appropriation subcommittees in the House and Senate for money," Boehm noted. "It's hard to imagine a more textbook example of a major financial conflict of interest.""

Feinstein MILCON it For what It's Worth - Part 1 1/2

What's this?

"The investigation [of Sen. Feinstein] was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute, a non-profit organization affiliated with the liberal magazine The Nation."

From: Feinstein Leaves Senate Defense Panel Amid Controversy
By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff WriterApril 02, 2007

More

This Feinstein Thing

So far the only story about speculation that California Sen. Diane Feinstein has used her position to direct dollars toward two corporations with ties to her husband come from a single source with many people, including myself speculating as to its meaning. Hyper-conservative talk radio personality, Michael Savage, is running with this story. It is apparent that Feinstein, given her high profile as Chair of the Senate Rules and Administration (which oversees ethics violations) is worth targeting to shift the focus from other scandals including one's previously mentioned on the pages here involving Republicans.

According to the Metroactive story by Peter Byrne, Senator Feinstein, "as chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee." This story was reiterated in a press release from the Association of Alternative Weeklies in late January.

If there is anything else to this story, the larger mass media isn't picking it up. Still a statement from Sen. Feinstein explaining her side of the story would be helpful. Otherwise, this thing could snowball.

The Heat Is On?

I'm curious, what is a visitor from the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms visiting my humble blog about? Oh, I see, it seems that a story I picked up off the web has some heat to it.


senate.gov 3/30 3:46:18 pm 3 4:13

Feinstein MILCON It for What It's Worth?

From Bohemian.Com

Feinstein Resigns From Subcommittee

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. 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.

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.

More at http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54932