... Is Good for the Gander

The Honorable Senator, and former chairmen of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON), Dianne Feinstein, or should I say Feinstain (as in stain of corruption) has again demonstrated her uncanny talent for blatant hypocrisy while leading the charge to bring down Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Demonstrating a talent for talking out of both sides of her mouth that would make a ventriloquist blush, Sen. Feinstain has excoriated not only the Attorney General and the Bush administration but also Senate colleague Pete Domenici for playing politics with US Attorneys.

Feinstain has repeatedly held up Carol Lam, the former US Attorney from San Diego as the designated poster child for political meddling, stating that, “It is a real surprise to me that you would say here that the reason for her dismissal was immigration cases,” and producing a recent letter from a top federal immigration official in San Diego praising Lam's record in combating immigrant smuggling.

What surprises me is how Senator Feinstain is capable of saying those words with a straight face. In a letter from Feinstain to Attorney General Gonzales dated July 15th 2006, Feinstain expresses frustration at the lax prosecution of immigration cases by US Attorney Lam and requesting to know what can be done to correct what she considered some of the most restrictive guidelines for prosecution in the entire nation. She points out in her letter that in FY 2005 Border Patrol Agents apprehended over 180,000 illegal aliens yet the US Attorney' s Office in Southern California (presided over by Lam) convicted a meagre 649 aliens for related offenses.

(read it on page 20 at http://www.judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJDocsPt11-5070319.pdf)

Now, less than a year later, Feinstain is singing Ms. Lam's praises while at the same time fingering Pete Domenici for making similiar complaints concerning the US Attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias', failure to push forward on varying prosecutions in his district. Now the mainstream media and blogs from the leftward land of silliness want Domenici on ethics charges while Feinstain skips away once again to get her face plastered on the small screen for her commitment to ethics, justice and the american way while at the same time enjoying all the money her husband made in defense contracts while his wife chaired the committee that approved them.

I know the Dems enjoy a good dose of double standards before bed but could they at least be discreet about it.