Diane Feinstein: Yet More No-Change Change

Di-Fi: Iraq war supporter? Yes. Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping? Yes and yes. War profiteering? That, too. Agent of change in Washington? Uh, no.

To our friends in the antiwar left, it’s official. You’ve been had. Diane Feinstein has been named as the Chair of the Intelligence Committee. In other words, the Obama honeymoon … done. Or at least it should be. First Hillary Clinton was tapped to run our foreign policy. Now, perhaps the only Democratic senator more hawkish than her is going to oversee how we gather intelligence.

Feinstein was a big Iraq war booster. She supported warrantless wiretapping. Cheerled the Patriot Act. Not to mention, just the other day she did her best Dick Cheney impression when asked about torture. She said interrogators should follow the Army Field Manual “to the greatest extent possible” but left open the possibility for ‘flexibility in extreme cases.’ And that’s not the only way she’s emulated our outgoing Veep.

As investigative reporter, and friend of the site, Peter Byrne demonstrated in a damning expose early last year, Feinstein consistently used her senior position on a key Senate subcommittee to enrich defense companies controlled by her wealthy husband, financier Richard Blum. In Byrne’s article, the head of the government watchdog group the Center for Public Integrity called her blatant conflict-of-interest, “just as serious as the Halliburton-Cheney connection.”

Of course, Feinstein didn’t have to pay for her Cheney-like behavior. Conveniently, she chaired the very Senate committee that set the body’s ethics rules. Seniority definitely has its upside in Washington. But what about the media? Surely they would relish the chance to dig into a senior senator’s profit-taking from her own votes? Nope. Project Censored named the story to its list of the 25 most-suppressed news items from 2007.

So … This is change? Obama and the Democratic leadership swap out war-boosting, ethically-challenged Republicans for Democrats with virtually the same positions and problems? The antiwar left must be livid! They must be ready to burn their inauguration tickets and march on Capitol Hill! … Right? …

We just paid a visit to the Daily Kos, the most popular leftwing blog site, to take the temperature of the movement. We did a search on Feinstein’s name for the last couple of days. The result? Bupkis.

Denial, as the wise ones say, is not just a river in Egypt.