Monday, July 1, 2019

Feinstein's Fine Mess

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Dianne Feinstein is not only California's senior United States senator, at eighty-six-years-old she is also the senior member of the entire United States Senate - and while other, more conscientious politicians would have retired two full terms ago, that's not Dianne's style.  Her grip on power is as tenacious as a barnacle clinging to a rusting old World War II Liberty Ship.  The aging senator may eventually lose her seat in an election, or through the intercession of the Grim Reaper, but she is unlikely to ever voluntarily retire and go home.

A major drawback to having someone of Dianne Feinstein's advanced years serving the public is that at a certain point they begin to act old and overlay their political activities with a level of tiredness that impedes the progress of civilization.

The other United States Senator from California, a former prosecutor named Kamala Harris, is more than thirty years younger that Feinstein.  Harris is running for the Democratic nomination for President and she is proving to be a formidable candidate.   Feinstein, also a Democrat, could have done herself proud by endorsing the candidacy of Harris, but she chose instead to declare her support for her former Senate colleague, Joe Biden - aged 76.

Kamala Harris is a firebrand who operates outside of Dianne Feinstein's comfort zone.   Joe Biden, on the other hand, is a Metamucil cocktail, someone that tottering old Dianne can understand and appreciate.  One has to wonder how Feinstein felt watching Senator Harris nail Biden to the debate stage floor last week when she confronted him about his past positions on race in America.  Did Feinstein have an epiphany about America's evolution on the issue of race, or was she aghast at the audacity of a whippersnapper in challenging an American institution like Biden?

The Democrats are reaching a point of critical mass as they head into 2020.  Do they throw caution to the wind and charge bravely into the future, or do they struggle valiantly to keep a lid on things and present themselves as the calm and sensible political party of thirty years ago?

Dianne Feinstein has decided to cast her lot with the known quantity of Joe Biden.  He probably represents all of the change that she is capable of tolerating.   Now it will be up to America to decide if that is enough.

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