UPDATE: Diane Feinstein’s Hubby “Leading Candidate” to Win CA HSR Construction Contract — Coincidence!

You’re gonna love this. Turns out, the goofy process of the first CA HSR construction contract favors the husband of U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein!  The final contract has not been issued, as further negotiations with bidders are still to be completed.  But the Feinstein group has won the “leading candidate” designation — which makes them the odds-on favorite to land the contract.

The California High Speed Rail Authority changed the bidding criteria midstream to lower the importance of HSR expertise — otherwise the Feinstein bid would not have made it past the first cut. Of course, objections have been raised to this “on the fly” modification.  And rightly so.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-high-speed-bidding-20130419,0,188616.story

The Dems have no shame. Suddenly the liberals have forgotten their concerns about Big Business using government connections to make huge, protected profits.

Apparently that’s okay as long as one of THEIR folks rakes in the loot.

http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/04/26/se-diane-feinsteins-husband-wins-ca-rail-contract/

CalWatchdog Blog
Your eyes on California Government

NEW: Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband wins CA rail contract
April 26, 2013

By Katy Grimes

U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, won the first phase construction contract for California’s high-speed rail. [RIDER NOTE:  This assertion seems to be premature — technically the HSR Authority has not finalized the bid.]

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

If I didn’t witness the insanity and corruption in politics every day, I wouldn’t have believed this.

“The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process, but “low” is a relative term,” the Laer Pearce, author of Crazifornia wrote. ”The firms bid $985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile.”

“As this fiasco progress, remember that this $35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it will be the cheapest,” Pearce said.

Read Pearce’s story here. And stop staring dumfounded at the computer screen. Yes, this is true.