Get Well, Senator Feinstein - Or Go Home

 

by Pa Rock

Reliable Democratic Voter

Dianne Feinstein, the longest serving current member of the United States Senate as well as the Senate's oldest member, has just returned to work following a nearly three-month absence in which she dealt with a case of shingles that some reports say resulted in a very dangerous side effect of brain fever.  Both of my parents suffered from shingles during their final year or so of life, and I can personally attest to the awful physical impact that the condition has on its victims, and the emotional pressures that it brings to bear on family members.

Dianne Feinstein had the malady and she managed to survive, and a couple of weeks ago she returned to Washington amid great political pressure to either get back to work or resign so that someone else could represent California's and the nation's interests in the US Senate.

But is Feinstein actually back?  She is transported about the Capitol in a wheel chair and is constantly attended (guarded?) by a tight circle of aides.  This past week a reporter did somehow manage to slip past her legislative attendants and ask the senator a question related to her recent long-term absence from the Capitol - and Feinstein smiled back and told him that she had not been gone.

Oooh-weee-oooh!

Yesterday there were some stories in the press about the posse of aides who are constantly in attendance with Pelosi.  According to a report in yesterday's edition of the "New York Intelligencer," Feinstein's "secret caretaker," the person glued the tightest to the failing senator, is Nancy Prowda, the eldest daughter  to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Ms. Powdra, who is not an adult baby-sitter by training, works as an executive with Hilton Hotels when she is not assisting and/or guarding she remnants of California's senior senator.  Some reports indicated that she may be currently residing with Feinstein in the senator's home.

Why doesn't the aging senator who was born three months and two days into FDR's FIRST term just pack it in, retire, and go home to California to enjoy what time she has left in the sunshine of the Golden State?  One possibility is that she enjoys the power and prestige of being in the Senate and does not want to give it up.  But, of course, another possibility is that at this point she doesn't have a clear understanding of her situation and just smiles and goes along where she people roll her - and signs her name where they point.  That would hardly be a recipe for leadership.

There have also been stories in the press of late suggesting that the senior senator from California is little more than a pawn in a larger chess match that is playing out to determine the state's next senator after Feinstein is finally gone in January of 2025.

That game works this way:

Barring a political catastrophe, California is a reliably blue state that should return another Democrat to the Senate to replace Feinstein in January of 2025.  Right now there are five Democrats who have already officially declared that they want her job, and of those the most serious three candidates are all members of Congress:  Representatives Katie Porter (whiteboard Katie of Orange County), Adam Schiff (who represents some of the tonier areas of Los Angeles), and Barbara Lee who represents Oakland and the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area - and not the posh parts of San Francisco where people like the Pelosi's and Feinstein's live.  

If Feinstein should resign - or pass away - before her term ends, the governor of California, Democrat Gavin Newsom, could name her replacement, an act that would give a political leg up to his selectee in the 2024 race for a full term.  Newsom has said that he will appoint a black woman to fill that seat, a description which fits Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

But if Feinstein hangs on until the 2024 election, the choice would go to the voters outright, and Congressman Adam Schiff has a huge advantage of money already in the bank for the race - and he has the endorsement of Nancy Pelosi.

Katie Porter is a darling of the American Progressive movement and seems to think that her messaging will prevail in spite of not having a big-name California officeholder to cheer her along.

So, on a very basic level, the race to elect the next full-term senator from California centers around when Feinstein leaves office.  If she goes early the advantage will be to Gov. Gavin Newsom, and if Feinstein can remain functional until her term ends, Pelosi is likely to prevail with her pick.

It may be democracy of a sort, but a pissing match between the Governor of California and the former Speaker of the US House feels more like it is about the needs of Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi than it is about the needs of average Californians - and that is sad - almost as sad as Dianne Feinstein.

Get well Senator Feinstein, or go home.