Her response is normal for someone living in her bubble. Think about it -- were you upset back in the olden days when you heard about US Navy divers tapping Soviet telephone lines?
People like the President and senior Senators get daily briefings from the intelligence community. Part of that is to keep these folks apprised about what is up. Another part is to keep the paranoia level up so that these people see threats everywhere.
The "intelligence community" is a modern analog to the Guardians in Plato's republic. The natural question to ask is "Who watches the watchmen?" Feinstein's reaction answers that question.
The Soviet Union was a true super-power with a plausibly totalitarian agenda (perhaps not so much late in the game, but Stalin was no joke), and they occupied half of Europe.
There is nothing like that on the planet now, and nothing like it on any medium or even long-range trend. And yet our military spending in constant dollars is within a whisker of the Cold War peak when we were throwing money at SDI.
A good first step would be to cut budgets in these areas very deeply. That would simplify watching many fewer watchers.
The point isn't the Soviet Union was some wonderful thing.
We declared the Russians to be the main enemy during the cold war, and devoted considerable resources to spying on them. We recorded personal phone calls, leveraged any information to get more info, etc. We probably spied on undesirables who were suspected "communists" in the US as well. If you were in the bubble of the "intelligence community", you had no problem with that.
Fast forward to 2014. The enemy isn't a nation but an activity -- "terrorism" (maybe "drugs" as well). Because that activity can happen anywhere, the scope of the "enemy" changed from hostile nations to ANYONE. Someone like Feinstein, who is a patriot, is deeply affected when she realizes that she, too is the enemy.
People like the President and senior Senators get daily briefings from the intelligence community. Part of that is to keep these folks apprised about what is up. Another part is to keep the paranoia level up so that these people see threats everywhere.
The "intelligence community" is a modern analog to the Guardians in Plato's republic. The natural question to ask is "Who watches the watchmen?" Feinstein's reaction answers that question.