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Feinstein Gives Details of Obama-Clinton Meeting

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is divulging a few details of the top secret meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton held at her Washington house Thursday night.

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Only yesterday did Feinstein describe the event.

"They just wanted the opportunity to meet together alone. This is a deeply personal time, too. You're sorting out your feelings. Hillary's going to be giving a big speech tomorrow; Barack is trying to put things together for a major presidential campaign. So there are a lot of decompression, nerve-endings, all these things that need to kind of come together, and I think the opportunity to sit down, just the two of them, was positive," Feinstein, who allowed the two to meet in her Spring Valley home, recounted for reporters in the Capitol yesterday morning.

Neither Feinstein, a Clinton supporter, nor staff members for either senator attended the meeting, so only Clinton and Obama know precisely what was said. Feinstein said that earlier in the week, she offered Clinton her home as a possible neutral venue. Late on Thursday, Clinton decided that the time had come. She recognized that Obama was holding an evening rally with 10,000 supporters not far away, at the Nissan Pavilion in Northern Virginia, and called Feinstein to let her know they would be coming by.

Other than greeting the two opponents, Feinstein said, she did nothing for the meeting: "She called yesterday afternoon and said, 'Could we use your house?' And I said, 'Sure.' I received them, put them in the living room in two comfortable chairs facing one another."

Clinton and Obama each brought one staffer, and both were sent to Feinstein's study so the candidates could talk privately. Feinstein, whose financier husband, Richard Blum, has amassed a fortune valued at least $50 million, said Clinton and Obama did not ask for anything, so she simply left them glasses of water before heading upstairs to do some senatorial work while Clinton and Obama spoke privately.

An hour later, Clinton and Obama called upstairs to let Feinstein know that the historic meeting was finished.

"I came down, and I said, 'Good night, everybody. I hope you had a good meeting.' And they were laughing, and that was it," Feinstein said.

Shailagh Murray contributed to this report.