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Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on Sunday lashed out at New York Rep. Peter King (R) for creating "disdain and hatred" for Muslims following last week's bombing in Boston.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked King in a Sunday interview if he agreed that "political correctness be damned, we have to do more effective surveillance inside the Muslim community."

"The threat is coming from within the Muslim community within these cases in New York," King asserted. "They are getting people in our country, who are under the radar screen, who have clean records. We saw it in the Times Square bomber, the subway bomber in New York. And now we've seen it -- it appears -- in Massachusetts."

"And 99 percent of the Muslims are outstanding Americans. The fact is, that's where the threat is coming from," he added. "If you know where the threat is coming from a certain community, that's where you have to look."

Feinstein, however, argued that King's rhetoric was not very helpful.

"I think the important thing is to get the facts, let the investigation proceed," she pointed out. "With respect to whether we are doing enough in the Muslim community, I think we should take a look at that."

"But I don't think we need to go and develop some real disdain and hatred on television about it."

Wallace interrupted: "I must say, I don't think that's what Congressman King was saying. He was saying, that's where the threat is coming from, we have to address the threat."

"Well, this came at this point from two individuals," Feinstein explained. "That's what we really do know. We do not know what their connections are. So, I think we ought to find out before we begin to charge them with all kinds of associations."

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Rep. Peter King (R-NY) says that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev should be treated as an enemy combatant and does not deserve to be informed of his Miranda rights to remain silent because the "battlefield is now in the United States."

In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) if Tsarnaev should be treated as a criminal or an enemy combatant.

Feinstein argued that providing a Miranda warning to the suspect, who is a U.S. citizen, was "the only legal way to proceed."

"I do not believe that under the military commission law that he is eligible for that," she explained. "It would be unconstitutional to do that."

But King disagreed, saying that Tsarnaev "should be treated as a enemy combatant for the purpose of interrogation."

"The reason for it is there are so many questions unanswered, there are so many potential links to terrorism here," he continued. "Also, the battlefield is now in the United States. So, I believe he is an enemy combatant."

The New York Republican added that the suspect would be tried in a civilian court and the statements taken during interrogations could not be used against him in the trial.

"But right now he is one of the only links we have in any Chechen involvement in the al Qaeda movement, in the overall Islamist movement. And we don't know, are there other conspirators out there? Are there other explosives out there? Where did they get their radicalization? Are there mosques, imams that we should be looking at? Who did his brother meet with when he was in Russia, in Chechnya? These are only questions that I believe can be obtained if he does not get is Miranda rights."

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At an event for bloggers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday night, tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-SC) toasted the late conservative activist Andrew Breitbart as a "great and fearless leader."

Following a confrontation with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) over guns at a Senate Judiciary Committee, Cruz met up with conservative bloggers at the 4th annual Blog Bash, which bills itself as "the largest gathering of right-of-center bloggers."

"Let me tell you, the men and women in this room, you represent power and you represent democracy," Cruz told the crowd. "Let me tell you, each of you, you scare the hell out of Washington... Y'all are on front lines of taking this country back."

The Texas Republican ended his pep talk by holding up a beer in Breitbart's memory.

"I want to collectively remember our friend. And a toast to Andrew Breitbart," he said, turning up the bottle. "A great and fearless leader, and we all carry on with his unshakable, fearless spirit to speak the truth to power. And the more they quiver, the better job we're doing. God bless."

Cruz' speech sent the conservative blog Weasel Zippers into a state of giddiness.

"Must stop swooning… must stop swooning… I’m trying as hard as I can," blogger Zip wrote.

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Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on Sunday lashed out at the National Rifle Association (NRA), suggesting the "venal" organization had been corrupted to the point that it was taking money from gun manufacturers to "provide weapons" to children as young as 8 years old.

In an appearance on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked the California senator if she agreed that opposition from Democrats would make it tough to pass her recently-proposed assault weapons ban.

"Because the NRA is venal," Feinstein explained. "They come after you, they put together large amounts of money to defeat you. They did this [before the assault weapons ban was passed] in '93 and they intend to continue it."

"Are they venal or do they just disagree with you?" Crowley wondered.

"The NRA has become an institution of gun manufacturers," Feinstein insisted. "This morning on the front page of the New York Times, I was reading about their program now to provide weapons and training for youngsters from 8 years old to 15 years old. And this is supported by the gun manufacturers."

"In other words, here is a whole new group of people that we can get these weapons to. They just don't happen to be adults, they're children."

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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says that AR-15 military-style rifles should not be banned and that it is just "lovely propaganda" to call them "assault weapons."

Following the introduction on Thursday of Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) bill to ban assault weapons, CNN host Piers Morgan reminded Gingrich that Aurora shooter James Holmes used an AR-15 that could fire 100 bullets in a minute and it was legal under current law.

"How many more bullets do you need to fire, Mr. Speaker, before that qualifies as a dangerous killing machine by your criteria?" Morgan wondered.

"Well, by my criteria, and this goes back to the question of what you respect, Piers," Gingrich asserted. "I think the Second Amendment really matters."

"I put it to you that an AR-15 military-style assault weapon was used in the last five mass shootings," Morgan pointed out.

"It's not a military-style assault weapon," Gingrich insisted. "Look, this is a lovely propaganda."

"What else do you call then?" Morgan pressed. "A machine that can fire 100 bullets in a minute. What else do you call it?"

"I would simply say to you that millions of people, by your own definition, own an AR-15," the Georgia Republican explained. "They're law-abiding. They think it is their right under our Constitution to own it, and don't kid the rest of us."

"[T]he reason you find so many of us, and by the way, it's a substantial majority -- I think the last time I saw, 63 percent of the American people agree that the Second Amendment is actually there to protect us from tyranny," Gingrich continued. "The reason you find so many of us very reluctant to go down this road is we believe each step down this road leads to the next step and the next step and the next step."

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A former Marine says that an Democrats are like murderous dictator Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler's Third Reich because they are pushing to ban assault weapons in the wake of the recent slaughter of 20 elementary school students with a Bushmaster AR-15 in Connecticut.

In a letter to Sen. Diane Feinstein last year, retired Corporal Joshua Boston vowed not to register his AR-15 assault rifle because "I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one."

"I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America," Boston wrote. "I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American."

Fox News host Steve Doocy spoke to Boston on Monday after his letter went viral on the Internet.

"I think you -- like a lot of people, Joshua -- are worried that the federal government is going to come after our guns," Doocy observed.

"It's something we've seen happen time and time again in history," Boston explained. "With Stalin, it happened in Cambodia and then, of course, the Third Reich. No one saw that coming until it was too late."

The former Marine warned that gun-free zones made schools "a hunting ground for the predators in our society."

"Sure, and I believe that Sandy Hook Elementary was a gun-free zone and we know what happened there," Doocy agreed.

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Tea party-backed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that the right to own high-capacity ammunitions magazines like the 100-round drum that was used to kill at least a dozen people in Colorado last week is a "basic freedom" that is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked Johnson why people needed military-grade weapons like the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and large ammunition clips used by the shooter in Aurora, Colorado where at least 12 were killed and 58 were wounded.

"The left always uses the term 'assault rifle,' and they're really talking about semi-automatic weapons that are used in hunting," Johnson explained. "That's what happens in Wisconsin. These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can't prevent. It's really an issue of freedom."

"Does something that would limit magazines that can carry 100 rounds, would that infringe on the constitutional right?" Wallace wondered.

"I believe so," Johnson insisted. "There are magazines -- 30-round magazines -- that are just common all over the place. You simply can't keep these weapons out of the hands of sick, demented individuals that want to do harm."

"I would be very surprised if hunters in your state hunted with a 100-round ammunition feeding device," Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) disagreed. "In the bill I did, we exempted 375 rifles and shotguns by name so that no weapon used for hunting was effected at all. It's just the military-style assault weapons."

"But the result of that ban, it didn't solve any problems," Johnson insisted. "I look at the statistics and say it has no measurable effect. You can actually argue that it made matters worse. But I don't want to get into statistics. We are talking about basic freedoms."

In fact, Johnson would have likes to have seen more people armed in that Aurora theater.

"It's certainly one of the rationales behind concealed carry, where criminals actually had to be a little concerned before they commit a criminal act that maybe somebody could stop them," Johnson told Wallace. "And I think that is the truth, that if somebody -- a responsible individual -- had been carrying a weapon that maybe, maybe it could have prevented some of those deaths, some of those injuries. I mean, that's just the truth."

"And maybe you could have had a fire fight and killed many more people," Feinstein pointed out.

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Why shouldn't same sex couples have equal rights? According to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), it's because equality is just too expensive.

"Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) would actually result in an expansion of federal benefits and spending at a time when we know that federal spending is way out of control and our entitlement programs are unsustainable," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

"Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act would actually increase the cost of Social Security that is already insolvent," he added. "No one has paid into the Social Security system expecting benefits to be paid to same sex partners."

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) later explained that same sex couples, like everyone else, deserved the benefits of the system they had been paying into.

"If you have a same sex couple, both of whom have paid into Social Security, both of whom have fulfilled all the things required, that somehow it would be wrong if they got the same benefits as an opposite sex couple would," he said. "Fair is fair. They paid. They should be allowed. ... I think if you're paying the taxes, you're fulfilling the obligations, you ought to get the same benefits as anybody else."

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) added that a 2004 Congressional Budget Office report found that legalizing same sex marriage would actually slightly decrease the Social Security burden.

In the end, the committee voted 10-8 along party lines for the bill to repeal DOMA. It is not expected to pass the full Senate even if it does comes up for a vote.

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Sen. Diane Feinstein told Fox News' Chris Wallace that she supports sending detainees from Guantanamo Bay to California maximum security prisons. "In a maximum security prison, I don't worry about it, provided the prison is set up to accommodate it, and I believe we have facilities that are," said Feinstein.

John Amato:

DiFi knows all about prisons since California has such an incredible prison population that is regulated by asinine rules. Also several idiotic ballot initiatives have made it harder to lower the prison population by easing sentences on drug abusers instead of drug dealers. That being said, Diane at least takes the step of not being a bed-wetter when it comes to taking Gitmo prisoners. We as a country certainly know how to incarcerate people.

Bond acts like a frightened little child when talking about Gitmo prisoners and spreads the falsehood that Gitmo prisoners will suddenly be hanging out with the general population of a prison so they can grow al-Qaeda cells behind prison walls and encourage those nasty criminals into criminal behavior. It's absurd and another lunatic right wing talking point. He knows what Maximum security means and if we built new prisons to hold detainees then it would create jobs for the state of California or any state willing to take them. It would also close the disgusting Gitmo hell hole chapter from the Bush era and end it as a recruiting tool for terrorists, a win-win situation all around.

Transcript via CQ Politics:

FEINSTEIN: Well, as you know, I’m one that believes very strongly Guantanamo should be closed, and I believe it can be done.

I’m also one that’s somewhat familiar with the prison structure in the United States. And I know that there are maximum security prisons from which no one escapes in the United States, which are isolated from neighborhoods.

And no one is going to put these people in anyone’s neighborhood, as some have tried to say.

WALLACE: So you’ll be OK with having some of these detainees in California?

FEINSTEIN: Yes. In a maximum security prison, I don’t worry about it, provided the prison is set up to accommodate it, and I believe we have facilities that are.

WALLACE: Senator Bond, you get the last word.

BOND: I -- this is one of the areas on which Senator Feinstein and I disagree. I think Guantanamo is the best place to hold these hardened criminals. We don’t want to put them in our general prison population where they have and will radicalize other prisoners.

They will draw their friends in Al Qaida to come into the area from the outside. I wouldn’t mind seeing them at Alcatraz, but my California friends have minimum amount of high enthusiasm for that.

But if they’re sick, they’re transferred to the federal Springfield, Missouri medical facility in my state, and my constituents and I think that would be a very bad idea.

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On CBS's Face the Nation when asked if Republicans should stop calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist Kyl responds with this:

Kyl: I don't know of Republicans in the Senate who have ever called her a racist and by the way....

Schieffer: I said Republicans, not Republicans in the Senate.

Kyl: Yeah. Well our job, I hope our job is a little like we're insisting for the judges and that is we look at the facts, we examine the situation, and then we make our decision.

[....]

Schieffer: Let me clear up just one thing. You do not think she's a racist do you Senator Kyl or do you?

Kyl: Bob I, I'm not going to get drawn into characterizations before I've even met her. I'll be meeting her on Tuesday. I intend to review very carefully, I actually practiced before the Supreme Court, I enjoy reading opinions, and I'm going to read as many of her opinions and look at the decisions that she's made before I make any pronouncements. I think that's what we're asking her to do as a judge when she approaches cases and I think she would want us to approach our consideration of her nomination in the same fashion.

Apparently Kyl is more afraid of speaking out against the extremists out there like Limbaugh, Tancredo and Gingrich than alienating Hispanic voters.