Feinstein resigns

From an appropriations subcommittee:

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

This may not be a real big deal and there is no indication she did anything wrong. But today everything revolves around perception, and the Democrat leadership probably worried about her possible conflict of interest getting in the way of Scandal Mania. Now, if we can just figure out where the mainstream coverage disappeared to. It's gotta be around here somewhere..


But not as of 7:17pm CDT 3/28/07, whereupon a search at both New York Times and Washington Post turned up nothing on this. It's pretty clear this story isn't getting any traction.

MORE 3/28/07

Couldn't find anything here, either. Nothing here, either. This Senate page seems to confirm she's no longer on the committee.

All of this seems to be coming from this one reporter in Silicon Valley. Somebody help this guy out!

While we're waiting, take a look at this from an earlier article dated March 14 (which was also in the article above):

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.

The Walter Reed scandal was running hot during the last two weeks of February. Again, this is simply a perception issue with Senator Feinstein, and I believe she did the correct thing in stepping down. But don't we deserve to know why she was allowed on the subcommittee to begin with such an obvious conflict, and how/why she resigned?

UPDATE 3/28/07

Removed the graphics. The blatant advertisement was beginning to challenge the non-profit status of this site and didn't want them to be associated indirectly.

MORE 3/29/07

Jawa Report is asking, rather loudly:

WHERE IS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA? WHERE ARE THE DEMOCRATS TO CONDEMN AND ASK FOR HER RESIGNATION? WHERE IS NANCY PELOSI? WHERE IS HARRY REID? WHERE IS CHUCK SCHUMER?

More importantly, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE REPUBLICANS?

When this was posed to a few liberals I know, that was the first question--where is Fox News? Where is Rush? Hannity? There are Republicans on the subcommittee who obviously know the whole story, but have remained mum. That seems to mean that 1) there's no there there, 2) opening the can of worms publicly might expose them, too, or 3) something else I haven't thought of.

Feinstein (I believe) became the Chairperson after the Democrats took control in November. Now Tim Johnson wears that hat. Is he formally back to work yet? I could find no press releases on his website that would shine any light.

World Net Daily is also reporting, which is where Michael Savage got this link, but they've simply copied the Metroactive article. Instapundit was on it last night. Still no MSM coverage. And crickets from the Repubs. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

A PEEP BECOMES A SHOUT 3/29/07

Michelle Malkin is on it, and reminds everyone she was on it in January. I'm still having trouble understanding why the mainstreamers aren't interested, including Fox News, but let's give it a little more time.

WHAZZUP 3/29/07

Wil's Corner has a lot of questions and links.