September 24, 2007

Glenn Greenwald Sums Up Dianne Feinstein in Four Words: “Bush-Enabling Beltway Democrat”

California’s Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein provides a perfect case study for understanding why the Congress has done virtually nothing to oppose the most extreme Bush policies, while doing much actively to support it.

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Just look at what she has done this year on the most critical and revealing votes:

* Voted in FAVOR of funding the Iraq War without conditions;

* Voted in FAVOR of the Bush White House’s FISA bill to drastically expand warrantless eavesdropping powers;

* Voted in FAVOR of condemning MoveOn.org;

* Cast the deciding vote in August on the Senate Judiciary Committee in FAVOR of the nomination of far right Bush nominee Leslie Southwick to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2006, Feinstein not only voted in favor of extending the Patriot Act … she not only voted in favor of amending the Constitution to outlaw flag burning, but was, as she proudly described herself, “the main Democratic sponsor of this amendment.”

In October of 2002, she (naturally) voted to authorize President Bush to use military force to invade Iraq. She now self-servingly claims that she “regrets” the vote and was tricked by the Bush administration into believing Saddam had WMDs…

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What is so notable … is that Feinstein is a Democratic Senator from one of the most liberal states in the country. Conventional wisdom holds that she is a “liberal” or at least a moderate. She came onto the national scene in the 1980s as the Mayor of San Francisco, one of the most liberal large cities in the nation, and was twice re-elected by San Francisco residents. … But what she does with the greatest conviction is supports right-wing Bush measures and, above all else, is an ardent defender of the Beltway power establishment.

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By very stark contrast, most (though certainly not all) Democrats in Congress — particularly the most influential and longest-serving ones in the Senate like Feinstein — have contempt for their base and share virtually none of their values. …

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As Digby said yesterday of Senate Democrats: “it surely seems true that they loathe the Democratic base as much as the Republicans do.” Hence, Dianne Feinstein funds Bush’s war with no limits while condemning MoveOn. … She defends and vouches for and places blind faith in the whole litany of Bush intelligence officials who have spent the last six years radicalizing this country and breaking the law. Plainly, Feinstein does not do this out of political fear or “spinelessness,” but because it is who she now is and what she believes. She and those like her are the reason why there is such a gaping disconnect between the Beltway political class and the political views of most Americans. …