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MAY 18, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

Feinstein and Lear

California's senior senator is doing her country, her party, and
herself no favors by clinging to office.

More and more, the story of Dianne Feinstein is grimly calling to mind
that of Lear. She's not, thankfully, howling on the moor, but consider
this exchange she had with a couple of reporters who came across her on
Tuesday afternoon. One of them asked her about the well-wishes her
Senate colleagues had been giving her since she'd returned to
Washington last week. The dialogue, as reported
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in the

**Los Angeles Times**, went as follows:

FEINSTEIN: What have I heard about what?

REPORTER: About your return.

FEINSTEIN: I haven't been gone. You should ... I haven't been gone.
I've been working.

REPORTER: You've been working from home is what you're saying?

FEINSTEIN: No. I've been here. I've been voting. Please, either know
or don't know.

Restated in Early Modern English, that exchange could fit nicely into

**Lear**'s third act.

This afternoon,

**The**

**New York Times** reported
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that during her longer than two-month absence from Washington, as she
suffered from shingles in her San Francisco home, Feinstein also
contracted encephalitis, which the

**Times** described as a swelling of the brain that

can leave patients with lasting memory or language problems, sleep
disorders, bouts of confusion, mood disorders, headaches and
difficulties walking. Older patients tend to have the most trouble
recovering. And even before this latest illness, Ms. Feinstein had
already suffered substantial memory issues
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that had raised questions about her mental capacity.

The senator's few visible and audible moments in the Capitol since
she's returned display the very language problems, bouts of confusion,
and difficulty walking that encephalitis can inflict.

It's increasingly clear that Feinstein should not still be serving as
California's senior senator. There's more than one obstacle,
however, to her stepping down. The first is her own apparent
determination to continue in office. There have been stories in the
press that speculate-which is not quite the same as reporting-that
her determination is being bolstered by her San Francisco neighbor Nancy
Pelosi (Pelosi has said as much; that's not speculation), likely
because Pelosi backs Rep. Adam Schiff to succeed Feinstein in the 2024
senatorial election and fears that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will
appoint a Schiff rival, Rep. Barbara Lee, to the post if Feinstein
resigns (that's speculation, or at least somewhat informed inference).
Newsom has long since pledged to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat
if Feinstein steps down; if appointed, Lee, a Black woman who's
represented Oakland and Berkeley in the House since 1998, would make it
difficult for her two declared 2024 rivals for the Senate seat, Schiff
and Rep. Katie Porter, to stay in the race. Running to unseat the only
Black woman in the Senate would be politically problematic, if not
impossible.

For his part, Newsom, whose presidential ambitions are about as
inconspicuous as a quasar, could well think (yes, this is speculation,
too) that appointing Lee would get him cred among Black voters if and
when he runs for president, and that a Senator Lee would be less of a
rival to him than either Schiff or Porter. At 75, Lee is a good deal
older than her two Senate opponents, and than Newsom himself.

Feinstein has positioned herself on the right flank of California
Democrats as far back as 1990, when she attacked her opponent in that
year's Democratic gubernatorial primary for his opposition to the
death penalty. She's maintained that position during her three decades
in the Senate, voting to authorize the war in Iraq and to support George
W. Bush's tax cuts on the rich. To not much apparent success, I've
been calling her out for such stances since 1990, acknowledging that
most of the time, she's voted with the Democrats' party-line
program. In 2017 and '18, I wrote several articles
<[link removed]> arguing that her
running for re-election to a six-year term at age 85 was, for multiple
reasons, the wrong choice.

Now, however, it's a number of Feinstein's longtime
supporters-understandably pained to see her condition and persuaded
that the job demands more of her than she has to give-who are
beginning
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to say she should go, too. Act III, after all, is only the middle of

**Lear**. Let's hope this story doesn't devolve into a full-blown
five-act tragedy.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter <[link removed]>

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New Hampshire Senators Silence Opposition to Controversial Judicial
Nominee
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A litany of red flags in Michael Delaney's record has delayed his
judicial confirmation for months. But few will speak out. BY DAVID DAYEN

Virginia in View
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Voting in state legislative primary races is under way, and North
Carolina's new abortion restrictions will reverberate across the
electorate. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

The Intra-Left Dispute Disrupting a Progressive House Campaign
<[link removed]>
Aaron Regunberg has a shot to win a congressional special election in
Rhode Island this fall, but a left-wing group has blasted him for not
being progressive enough. BY LUKE GOLDSTEIN

The Access Journalism-House Republican Mind Meld
<[link removed]>
On today's X-Date, how the relationship between Punchbowl News and
Kevin McCarthy is driving a bad resolution to the debt ceiling crisis BY
DAVID DAYEN

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