Crony of the Month
In barely a month, Dianne Feinstein's husband has scored 1) The first ever national exclusive real estate broker's contract to sell USPS buildings and 2) The multi-billion dollar contract to construct the first leg of California "high speed" rail.
wgr:
Impressive! Of course, we've always known it's not what you know, it's who you know. It's a law of nature.... and government. Do you think Californians will care? Will anyone else? Or will there be a collective shrug?
June 3, 2013, 9:42 ammarque2:
Yeah, we notice, but the government is too corrupt to do anything about it. His high speed rail bid violated the rules because his company had no such expertise - not with any rail. But because his bid was so low, they gave it to him, so that the state can claim high speed (really low speed) rail will cost much less than expected. Of course Feinstein plans to make it all back in cost overruns due to "unforeseen" circumstances which can be conveniently made up on the spot.
June 3, 2013, 2:16 pmSoylent Green:
Time for the torches an pitchforks...and rope.
June 3, 2013, 5:39 pmBenjamin Cole:
Feinstein has been a shill for the rich and powerful ever since she was elected...she talks some annoying liberal trash, but protects the wealthy at every chance...a phony she is.....a crony capitalist
June 3, 2013, 9:28 pmMNHawk:
A real estate broker AND a construction magnate. Either he's incredibly talented or incredibly corrupt. I wonder which it could possibly be, in a state with some of the dumbest voters on the planet.
June 4, 2013, 3:27 ampepe romo:
We should boycott the gubmint.
June 4, 2013, 11:19 pmbigmaq1980:
Made up "unforeseen" overruns are extremely difficult to achieve in normal circumstances when working with the government - most overruns are usually due to changes the government wants to make.
However, when you have the threat of a Senator to come down on the client organization, you bet this smooths a path for just that kind of corruption.
Also, Feinstein can claim (as she did in the linked article) that she did not have any direct input, because all it really takes is the fact that she is a Senator and a skilled salesman to leverage that fact to the political overseers in the procurement process.
Corruption and abuse of power can take many forms.
June 11, 2013, 10:22 pmbigmaq1980:
No she is the power abuser, her husband is the crony, but I cringe at associate any of this with capitalism - this is what gives capitalism its bad reputation.
Most career politicians are opportunists looking to acquire power (to use for various reasons, e.g. prestige, enrichment). They adopt a political stance as a means to get that power, not because the really believe in what they espouse. It forms over time, but starts with what happens to be, in their judgement and background, at that time, the best position to take to get elected.
That is why we hear a lot of promises and often find them either short on follow through or engaging / endorsing the entirely opposite position.
If we look at it through that lens, it explains a lot of the behavior we see.
June 11, 2013, 10:35 pm