Now even Dianne Feinstein’s former Senate colleague, Barbara Boxer is calling for her to step down.
At age 88 it’s time for Dianne Feinstein to step down.
BY MARK Z. BARABAK
Asked about her former colleague, Boxer said: “If Sen. Feinstein were to call me today and asked my advice, I would say only you can decide this. But from my perspective, I want you to know I’ve had very productive years away from the Senate doing good things. So put that into the equation.”
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.”
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.”
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 like she is blissfully unaware.
Now it’s looking like Gov. Gavin Newsom will defeat the recall easily.
The end result is the new poll finds 60.1% of likely voters oppose the recall and only 38.5% support it, a finding in line with other recent polls and suggesting the governor has the wind at his back in the home stretch.
I’ve experienced having a family member who’s diminished capacity prevents them from recognizing their own diminished capacity. My Mother died of Alzheimer’s.