At age 87, Feinstein is the oldest sitting U.S. senator. Recently her age seems to be catching up with her. This comes from the Nation.
By Joan Walsh
She’s said it before. Now she’s said it again.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, holder of one of the safest, most powerful, and most lucrative Senate seats in the country, the senior senator from the most liberal state in the union, on Thursday reiterated her unwillingness to vote to torpedo the Senate filibuster that lets Republicans veto President Joe Biden’s popular agenda.
“If democracy were in jeopardy, I would want to protect it,” she told Forbes on Wednesday. “But I don’t see it being in jeopardy right now.”
Feinstein told us the same thing last September, when asked about rising pressure from the Democratic base, and liberal senators, to scuttle the filibuster: “I don’t believe in doing that. I think the filibuster serves a purpose…. I think it’s part of the Senate that differentiates itself.”
At least nine Senate Democrats have unofficially formed a Not-So Progressive Caucus to block progressive legislation and throw shade at abolishing the filibuster, without always explaining why. Besides Manchin, Sinema, and (occasionally) Feinstein, it can include Montana’s Jon Tester, Delaware’s Chris Coons and Tom Carper (often viewed as home-state Biden stand-ins), Maine independent Angus King, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan, and Maryland’s Ben Cardin. When it came to scuttling a $15-an-hour minimum wage, not just Republicans but also Sinema, Tester, Hassan, King, Coons, and Carper went along with Manchin (Feinstein, predictably, did not, since that’s already the law in her state).
By Jane Mayer
Speaking on background, and with respect for her accomplished career, they say her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have. They describe Feinstein as forgetting what she has said and getting upset when she can’t keep up. One aide to another senator described what he called a “Kabuki” meeting in which Feinstein’s staff tried to steer her through a proposed piece of legislation that she protested was “just words” which “make no sense.” Feinstein’s staff has said that sometimes she seems herself, and other times unreachable. “The staff is in such a bad position,” a former Senate aide who still has business in Congress said. “They have to defend her and make her seem normal.”
Feinstein has always been known as a difficult taskmaster. She is said to have told someone applying for a job in her office, “I don’t get ulcers—I give them.” A stickler for detail, she demanded to see every page going out of her office with her name on it. But with her diminishing capacity, this has become increasingly difficult. The former Senate staffer who still works with Congress declared, “It’s been a disaster.” As the ranking Democrat, Feinstein ordinarily would be expected to run the Party’s strategy on issues of major national importance, including judicial nominations. Instead, the committee has been hamstrung and disorganized. “Other members were constantly trying to go around her because, as chair, she didn’t want to do anything, and she also didn’t want them doing anything,” the former Senate staffer said. A current aide to a different Democratic senator observed sadly, “She’s an incredibly effective human being, but there’s definitely been deterioration in the last year. She’s in a very different mode now.”
Schumer had several serious and painful talks with Feinstein, according to well-informed sources. Overtures were also made to enlist the help of Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum. Feinstein, meanwhile, was surprised and upset by Schumer’s message. He had wanted her to step aside on her own terms, with her dignity intact, but “she wasn’t really all that aware of the extent to which she’d been compromised,” one well-informed Senate source told me. “It was hurtful and distressing to have it pointed out.” Compounding the problem, Feinstein seemed to forget about the conversations soon after they talked, so Schumer had to confront her again. “It was like Groundhog Day, but with the pain fresh each time.” Anyone who has tried to take the car keys away from an elderly relative knows how hard it can be, he said, adding that, in this case, “It wasn’t just about a car. It was about the U.S. Senate.”
When Senator Feinstein says about our democracy: “I don’t see it being in jeopardy right now.” she shows how myopic and out of touch here perceptions are. Is Senator Feinstein even faintly aware of what has happened since the November 3th election? It seems not. The Republican Party has sharply pivoted away from supporting our democratic republic, and toward a blind allegiance to an authoritarian leader. But Senator Feinstein acts like the last eight months never even happened.
Senator Feinstein needs to retire, and the sooner the better.