01 May 2007

Dianne Feinstein Indicted on Criminal Charges...


Okay, so that is not true. Yet. It seems that the senator from California may be complicit in illegally funneling $1.5bn in MILCON funds to companies controlled by her husband. If you think this is bad, let's see how the newly minted democratic congress handles this issue.

I am not a fan of congress. Any governing by committee or representation will fall into a sectarian nest of vitriolic self-interest with no interest in the whole, except as it serves to provide for their benefit.
But, it's worked for us so far. The problem is that we are now able to see every indiscretion and every backroom deal that takes place.
Does it matter?
Can we handle the truth?
Do we want to?
I, for one, do. I expect accountability. I expect good behavior. I require good stewardship on behalf of the WHOLE country.
Feinstein should be held to the same standard.
As should ALL our elected and appointed officials.

19 comments:

ep417 said...

There is something oddly gleeful about your headline which I find disturbing. You are right in so much of this, but reading between the lines it is almost that you expect the Democratic controlled Congress to sweep this under the rug, thereby giving the right a "there, you see?" moment. If it is true, I also expect people to be held accountable. But there are bigger fish out there (Karl Rove? Wolfowitz? Cheney?) to fry....Oh yes, I expect to be flamed by the major and maggie, but so it goes. Thus we have our divided nation.

Citizen Deux said...

Capt, my gleefulness is about the obvious double standard which exists for elected officials, regardless of stripe. That said, Ms. Feinstein is pegged with moving 1.5bn dollars of appropriations to her husband's firms.

My expectation is that this is investigated, and if true, she goes to jail. If there are crimes which have been committed by Rove, Cheney, Wolfowitz, then they should stand under the same light.

However, despite a voracious congress and vengeful press, we get Scooter Libby convicted of not remembering conversations.

Just because you'd like someone to be guilty, doesn't make them so.

Isn't that right Mr. Nifong?

ep417 said...

I'm sorry. I don't recall....

LTC John said...

I expect naught to happen because naught will be told to anyone. If this had been John McCain, rather than Diane Feinstein, we would have had non-stop coverage and blaring headlines from here until the cell door clanged shut.

Mark Foley's e-mails or millions and millions in self dealing - which gets the screen time and newspaper inches?

ep417 said...

C'mon, Maj. John, isn't the "if this had to happened to...." argument just a tad ingenious? It is often used by both parties when feeling somehow, oh, disenfranchised. I have even used it myself. Just ask our erstwhile host.

As for Foleygate getting the screentime, I agree. When has a sex scandal NOT sold papers? Especially one involving a closeted republican official, of which, I know, there are way more than meets the eye...(I had tried to post a different version of this earlier. Was I censored?)

sonicfrog said...

I'm a Californianer and though I don't agree with a good chunk of her political views, DiFi has always struck me as being a reasonable Senator. This would be a shame if it's true, but, all the same what's good for the goose should be good for the gander.... or something like that.

In other words, equal justice. If she is found to have playing funny with the money, how much you wanna bet there will the same kind of justice given to Sandy "Baggy-Pants" Berger.

sonicfrog said...

Oh, Hi everyone. Miss me?

ep417 said...

Thank God, Sonic. The voice of reason returns! Welcome back....

Citizen Deux said...

I concur with Sonic, Feinstein had been a low key player in the Congress. But if true - lower the boom. It's one thing to support pork in your district, but quite another to redirect billions in contracts to your spouse.

And Capt, there was no censoring - who knows why blogger works or not. I do think the right gets a LOT more attention when it comes to scnadal than the left.

What about Rep. Jefferson's (D-LA) infamous $90,000 in the freezer? Sorry, the out of power angle is correct, but for media attention - not so much.

sonicfrog said...

Hey, I love sex!!! We all need more!


But seriously, the list comes out tomorrow. Part of me doesn't care one way or the other, but then there's the part that love a good political scandal. That part wins out every time. Politics can be such a fun game.... if you can handle the stench.

ep417 said...

Perhaps the right is perceived as getting more attention because the attitude from the right is (and this is merely subjective on my part) a a bit more "holier than thou" on their part, so it is used to point up the hypocrisy, of say, a Ted Haggard or a Randy Cunningham? If we are to go the "if this had happened route", if the exact same events had tranpired under Janet Reno as are now happening with Gonzales, she would have been gone weeks ago. Just sayin'....

Citizen Deux said...

Reno committed atrocious behavior in the Waco incident and the Elian Gonzalez incident (true derelictions of duty). Yet she remained.

Hm.

By the way, I don't think any side has the monopoly on the holier than thou claim.

LTC John said...

Sorry, but my jaundiced view of what plays or not in the press got set by the Afghan elections of 2004 and 2005. I cam eback and started looked at things with a gimlet eye and was startled at what I had though was whining by the bunch in power...who make the normal targets, by Convential Wisdom. Jefferson, Dianne Feinstein get shoved into the background and any whiff of scandal by their political opposites get s trumpeted. For God's sake, I live near Chicago - Da Mayor's staff keep getting shipped off to Club Fed as fast as the feds can process them - but the papers and radio hum a happy tune when referring to the Boss of Chicago (oddly enough, a Democrat). Our Current IL Governor is up to his eyeballs in the shite, but nobody in the press says squat. The last corrupt SOB Republican governor is facing a well-deserved stay in Club Fed and it was effing headlines for WEEKS at a time.

I cannot be faced with such an avalanche of evidence for 2+ years now and thnk that the press is "objective" or that one party gets the same treatment by the press as the other.

sonicfrog said...

ABC reneged on the naming of names.

Booooooooooo!!!!!

BostonMaggie said...

Geez Capt.! What did I ever do to you? Lol! You don't know me that well.....while I will cop to the most finely tuned sense of schadenfreude ever......I want DiFi (thanks Sonic) to be indicted only *IF* there is enough evidence to proceed and convicted only *IF* she is convicted. I don't want it because everytime she opens her mouth my ears bleed.

You must admit there is a little imbalance between the treatment of Scooter and Sandy-Pants.

What are you indicting Rove and Cheney for? Although I'll give you Wolfowitz. For God's sake Paul, step down and go away. Hang your head in shame while you're at it. (Not that I don't understand...with a face like that, cash must be part of the deal).

Sonic - Absolutely!!! A) More, more, more sex....and B) Boo on no names.

BostonMaggie said...

LOL, can you tell I have already started drinking? This trip to the MilBlogger conference has been one long drunk!

I want her *incarcerated* if convicted.

Citizen Deux said...

She and Paris could share a cell...

BostonMaggie said...

OW! You are hurting my eyes! I need a good brain washing or scrubbing. Going off to read more appealing porn.

ep417 said...

I am Mags. IT BURNS! IT BURNS!