Markos mentioned this in an open thread today
- CA-Sen: Damn this state for being so expensive, because I could go for a primary challenge to Dianne Feinstein.
Which is in response to Glenn Greenwald's column showing how much of a blockade DiFi has been of late.
The idea of a recall is about as far fetched as it gets, and I don't see any situation where she would retire midterm, especially not with a Republican governor. So what i'm saying right here and now is that if she decides to run for another term, we HAVE to primary challenge her.
here is the relevant part of that column:
Yet as Stoller documents -- based on his conversations with Caroline Fredrickson from the ACLU -- several key Democrats in Congress are actively working to ensure that this happens. Stoller notes that "The Senate Judiciary Committee is hamstrung by Dianne Feinstein, who prevents a majority . . . ." On issues of intelligence, judiciary and oversight, Feinstein really has become the new Joe Lieberman, repeatedly siding with the right-wing of the Republican caucus on key issues and thus actively enabling the worst abuses of the Bush administration.
Everybody I talk to who is a Democrat responds to Dianne Feinstein with a roll of the eyes at best, and a torrent of profanity at worst.
I used to keep a collection of the condescending letters I would receive back from her office, all written in the tone of a strict schoolmarm instructing a particularly slow child. It doesn't matter the issue, as long as I disagreed with DiFi, well... it was inferred that I was an idiot.
This happens WAY, WAY, WAY too much.
We should have primary challenged her in 2006, but at the time we were too busy focusing on trying to reclaim the Governorship. I meant to write about that then, but with Joe Lieberman/Ned Lamont going on, I didn't think it would get much traction. Also it's preposterously expensive to run statewide in California, we're talking presidential campaign style numbers, and that sucks!
in 2012 she will be 80 years old. Common sense would dictate that she would retire from the Senate at that point, at which point any number of top tier candidates will come flying out of the woodwork (Newsom, Willie Brown he'll be 78!, Westly, Villagarosa, Perata, Debra Bowen, and i'm sure a progressive of some kind)
But what if she doesn't retire?
If Democrats are still in the majority then Dianne, who has quite a bit of power, may decide to pull a Robert Byrd and just keep hanging with it.
Then we are well and truly screwed.
We can't let her get by with token opposition again.
One way or the other Dianne Feinstein is serving her last term.
-C.