Senator Dianne Feinstein’s career was filled with firsts, including first woman mayor of San Francisco and one of two of the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California.
I don’t understand why not retire. She held on to that seat till the bitter end, for what?
She could have had time with her family and we could have had a seamless replacement. Instead, she got to die at work (basically) and there is a hole in representation right as the government is about to shut down.
I wonder how this will impact the gov shutdown results
I don’t think she had full control of her faculties near the end. Her handlers and power of attorney should have forced her to retire but they didn’t.
The party wanted it controlled, prop her up till a moderate could be appointed, because a progressive can win Cali.
Nancy Pelosi wants someone to replace her, Gavin Newsom wants someone else. Nancy Pelosi wanted her to stay in office until the next election.
It’s all just a game to these kinds of people.
Newsom has been clear that he’s appointing someone as a placeholder so as not to interfere in next year’s Senate race by giving one of the actual contenders (Schiff, Porter, or Lee) the advantage of incumbency. But I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi, being Nancy Pelosi, would prefer the Party put their finger on the scale for the candidate leadership wants (which is probably 77 year-old Barabra Lee)
Schiff, Porter, or Lee
Aren’t they all in the House right now? Appointing one of them is a mixed bag, because it also leaves their House seat vacant until a special election is held, and Democrats need every vote they can get there. House seats can’t be filled with temporary appointments like Senate seats can.
Pelosi wants Adam Schiff. Newsom stated he wants a black woman (bc ofc he cares about identity politics) in the interim, likely Lee. Pelosi doesn’t want Lee since she’s more progressive than Schiff.
The temporary choice will have a massive leg up as an incumbent in the next election.
Senators don’t work that much. She had plenty of time with her family. She didn’t retire because she made lots of money being a centrist senator in a safe seat with enough seniority to do whatever she wanted.
This won’t impact the shutdown at all, since the House republicans want a shutdown.
Now Newsom will appoint a moderate black woman who will provide the optics without causing chaos. You might think that sounds cynical, but that’s exactly what Newsom already promised to do.
Because of her senority, she was one of the leaders of the party. I agree these elderly politicians need to retire, but that means at best they get replaced by a freshman senator of the same party with no political power. It’s the same reason why McConnell hasn’t retired even though he can’t finish a speech without zonking out and being whisked away by his handlers.
You mention family and smoother governance, but to some people their work connections are more important to them than their families and she could have thought that resigning would have been less smooth than trying to finish out the term.
Those things are possible, but I really think that her identity was being a senator and she didn’t want to give that up.
