Senator Dianne Feinstein has conveniently secured an exclusive contract for her husband's real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis, to dispose of foreclosure which the FDIC seized from failed banking institutions. Pretty sweet deal, eh? More:

Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.

Documents reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) - the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman - had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.

Of course, this is standard operating procedure for our government officials, so this is business as usual. A sad state of affairs in Washington today... Read the whole thing.