Give Dianne Time
Here are five words I never thought I’d utter:
I agree with Nancy Pelosi.
As she watched frenzied Democrats trying to unceremoniously shove 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein out of office this week, Pelosi had this to say:
"It’s interesting to me. I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Sen. Feinstein in that way. I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way," Pelosi told reporters Wednesday.
Me either, Nancy.
Shoot, your party gleefully ran a seriously impaired white man for the U.S. Senate last year and seemed unbothered by his limitations. John Fetterman had suffered a major stroke during the campaign yet no one on the left called for him to drop out. When he couldn’t take part in debates without special accomodations, critics on the right were dismissed as “ablest” and told to shut up.
Fetterman spent most of this winter in a mental hospital suffering from severe depression. Instead of being urged to resign so the people of Pennsylvania could have two voting senators, he was praised for raising awareness of mental illness.
In 2020, Joe Biden ran a Weekend-At-Bernie’s campaign, using Covid as an excuse to hide in his basement instead of campaigning in the open where his creeping dementia would have been on display.
Biden’s worsening confusion and apparent frailness are unmistakable now, his handlers keep him away from the press. And the party faithful continue to pretend that Biden is just fine - competent even - instead of telling him he should resign or not run again.
Dianne Feinstein may also have some cognitive issues but unlike her male counterparts, she can find no safe harbor on Washington as impatient political opportunists in her own party are nipping at her heels and telling her to quit.
In recent days, calls have grown for the 89-year-old Feinstein to resign. That’s because her illness-related absence from the Senate Judiciary Committee since mid-February (she was diagnosed with shingles) has hamstrung Democrats’ ability to confirm judges — an increasingly important political metric for administrations.
By Wednesday, those calls had bubbled up from the activist base to include congressional Democrats, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.). Phillips accused Feinstein and those who remain silent on the situation of a “dereliction of duty.” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) retweeted such a call. Soon, Feinstein’s office issued a statement saying she would instead urge Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to designate a temporary replacement on the Judiciary Committee, which Schumer agreed he would do.
A temporary replacement won’t satisfy the Democrats who want Feinstein gone.
Someone needs to ask these pushy politicians why they didn’t make a similar move when Fetterman was hospitalized this winter. Or when he suffered a stroke last spring.
Sen. Feinstein has occupied that Senate seat since 1992. She’s said she isn’t running for re-election in 2024. Why not let her finish her final term with dignity instead of treating her like a chunk of ballast?
