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Senator Dianne Feinstein, usually loath to conduct business in public unless it serves her own political interests, has publicly revealed that she wants to ask Senator Clinton how she plans to win her party's Democratic nomination.

“I, as you know, have great fondness and great respect for Sen. Clinton and I’m very loyal to her,” Feinstein said. “Having said that, I’d like to talk with her and [get] her view on the rest of the race and what the strategy is.”

DiFi also revealed that Senator Clinton has not yet returned her call. Perhaps she needs to call back at 3 a.m.

“I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party,” Feinstein said. “I think we need to prevent that as much as we can.”

This public revelation from a notoriously secretive Senator, and a longtime and early Clinton supporter, puzzles me. Famously unresponsive to constituent pressure on issues like telecom immunity as well as the Southwick and Mukasey nominations, is DiFi signaling publicly to Clinton because her call isn't being returned?

Feinstein stressed that Clinton is not an “also-run candidate,” but added that there is a question “as to whether she can get the delegates that she needs. I’d like to see what the strategy is and then we can talk further.”

WTF do you think DiFi is up to? Was her head turned by the casual mention of her name in Anne Kornblut's WaPo chatz earlier today?

Silver Spring, Md.: So, predictions on Obama's veep? I'm big on Joe Biden. Likeable, white elder statesman with loads of experience and foreign policy gravitas. I understand the Webb sentiment, but he seems like a bit of a loose cannon. Your thoughts?

Anne E. Kornblut: It's funny, we were just having this same discussion last night (caveat, of course, being that the race is not over). Biden is obviously a spectacular candidate, as is Sen. Chris Dodd, for similar reasons, but neither would bring an important electoral college state along -- although it's been awhile since that truly mattered. Other names we hear: Gov. Napolitano, Gov. Richardson, maybe even John Edwards again. Bob Graham? Dianne Feinstein? And then of course there is...Hillary Clinton.

[my bold]

DiFi's been around this Veep carousel before, losing out to Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. Her husband, Richard Blum, currently chair of the University of California Board of Regents and thus John Yoo's nominal ultimate boss, brings war-profiteering accusations and conflict-of-interest allegations to bear on her possible Veep candidacy.

But she was the most respected politician in California in 2006 and presumably would lock down a state Barack Obama lost to Hillary Clinton, where John Sidney McCain III makes noises about campaigning this fall.

And her Senate staff messes about in her wikipedia page, deleting references to published articles about her chairmanship of the Military Construction Committee, where she voted billions of dollars to firms owned by her husband, and about her $190,000 fine for failure to disclose her husband's guarantee of her losing gubernatorial campaign loans.

Also, just six months ago, the California Democratic Party had to use procedural technicalities to kill a proposed censure resolution signed by 32,000 Californians, that condemned Dianne Feinstein for straying from core Democratic values.

If Barack Obama doesn't seek to campaign against John McSame's warmaking, against McSame's promise of more Bush-like judicial selections, against the GOP for its war profiteering, against DeeCee insider dealing, against McSame for his campaign finance scofflaw attitude, and against the ruling Regime for its uncaring attitude to public opinion, Dianne Feinstein would be a spectacular choice for Veep. If core Democratic values aren't important, she belongs on the ticket in November.

Do these contrasts matter to Senator Obama?

I can understand why Senator Feinstein's head might be turned by the possibility of a Veep nomination, and why she then might try to help her favored candidate gracefully exit the race, thereby earning (in her eyes) the gratitude of the eventual nominee.

But if these contrasts are important for his fall campaign, I urge Senator Obama to look elsewhere for a running mate.

Update: And then there's Seersucker Friday, a sartorial abomination that deserves no reward at all. Can you spot the Democrats? Me neither.