By Emily Heil, Washington Post – She stands before television cameras just hours after the news breaks that the U.S. government has been conducting a massive surveillance program, compiling a database of Americans’ phone records and monitoring foreign terrorism suspects’ Internet traffic.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the top secret court order for telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon is a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice.

“It’s called protecting America,” says Dianne Feinstein.

A five-term California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, Feinstein hardly needs to flex her muscles these days to command deference. On Sunday talk shows and from podiums around the Capitol, she’s playing the role of chief congressional defender of the surveillance program to skeptical colleagues and critics who say it’s Big Brother run amok. She is also one of the most senior members of the powerful Judiciary and Appropriations panels.

Just as she is playing such high-profile roles, Feinstein, who turned 80 on Saturday, is blazing a new political trail as a symbol — an unwilling one — of the changing workplace.

“It’s a non-role as far as I’m concerned,” Feinstein says. “I’ve always had the belief that age is just chronology. I know people who are 50 who are older than I am.”

via Feinstein, NSA’S top congressional defender, has built respect over decades of service – The Washington Post.