Backed by the full weight of a government majority on her committee, her excoriation of the plan is formidable.
Andrew Stern, the service employees' president, criticized Dr. Shalala, saying: "She talks about democracy, but no worker got to vote on her committee or her committee's recommendations.
"The president very clearly said, 'We need this capability to keep people safe,' " said Feinstein, who also appeared on "Meet the Press," adding that the majority of members on her committee would agree with that.
A former partner at Goldman Sachs who still heads the investment firm Granite Capital International Group, Mr. Eisenberg was appointed a Port Authority commissioner in 1994 by Governor Whitman after serving on her committee charged with finding cost-saving ways to privatize public services.
The three people on her committee who took the view that life begins at conception could not sign up; outside the committee, other bioethicists, such as the philosopher John Harris, thought that a 14-day limit on embryo experimentation was arbitrary and far too low.
Helping out on her committee were Maureen Railsback, Charlotte Saydah, Debbie Enterante Zielinski, Daryl Baker-Pollock, Karen Hopper, Michele Stephes, Kim Kessler, Michelle Sabourin, Gala Winter, Kelly Davis, Debbie Post and Paige McIlwain.
Though the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif ., a CPC member, she has to contenD-Calif .e interests of New Democrats on her panel, who outnumber CPC membershe1 to 7. Waters can't just shastodown every bank-friendly bill that New Democontendook up with Republicans on her commithee.
Feinstein has backed the NSA's vast global surveillance apparatus but now says the CIA has spied on her committee, hacked its computers, and tried to intimidate its staff, all as part of a bid to block or blunt the release of a report on the use of torture to obtain information in the post-9/11 era.
A Friday evening fundraiser for a women's political group advertised "An Update from CA's Leading Reformer on Sexual Harassment". People packed into the offices of a local law firm to hear Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who has been leading the Legislature's examination of its own harassment policy, give a progress report on her committee's work.
While the Senate committee was conducting its examination of the CIA's secret documents, the British ambassador in Washington, Sir Peter Westmacott, met Feinstein and other members of her committee on at least 11 occasions over two years.
