Dianne Feinstein’s Botched Send-Off

By DON ROLLINS

Earlier this month the 118th US Congress was seated, with conservatives now holding sway. The election process that brought them to that hour was every bit as sophomoric and rancored as we feared; topped only by the Republican dumpster fire otherwise known as selecting the next House Speaker. Another election cycle, another reminder how outmoded the Constitution is when it comes to selecting 535 of the most powerful people in the world.

But while congresses in the early 2000s have damn sure earned dour evaluations like the one above, there remain all those members — past and present — that have used or are using their immense power to advance historic progressive populist values. Among them the longest serving female in Senate history.

Many Americans outside California had never heard of Dianne Feinstein prior to her successful 1978 bid to become mayor of San Francisco. (Sidebar: She served on that city’s Board of Supervisors for nearly a decade, 1969-1978).

Known as a moderate Democrat in a state full of party progressives, Feinstein nonetheless won a special election to the US Senate in 1992, two years after losing a gubernatorial race. She’s held that seat ever since.

Feinstein’s Senate voting record and initiatives have been solidly liberal over that long tenure. She’s served on key committees, and been a party firewall against the very worst of Republican rule. She is at age 89 a respected and revered champion of the left.

But time and talent are catching up with the champion. With more than a year-and-a-half left on Feinstein’s current term, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) is the first but surely not the last to indicate she’ll be running for Feinstein’s seat — an awkward set of circumstances given the senator is yet to indicate her own intentions.

Seen from the proverbial balcony view, the awkwardness has little to do with either Feinstein or Porter; rather the timing of an inevitable, generational transfer of power within a party in need of every bit of unity it can muster. Porter has defended her timing in order to open up what will be a very full and much younger field - an understatement given the number of deep-pocketed Dems certain to make pitches to California’s party apparatus. But Feinstein’s many supporters have taken umbrage that no back-channel conversations took place ahead of time. Their champion has been put in an unnecessary no-win predicament.

At this juncture, there is no ideal scenario for Feinstein, Porter, or the party in general. The best that can happen are some off-record, staff-to-staff conversations about putting on a good public face: Feinstein will announce her retirement to great accolades; She’ll go out on top of her game; Her would-be successors (current and future) will invoke her name and legacy with more respect than was shown her on her way out the door.

And a true champion of the left will find enough grace and understanding for a job well done, no matter a botched send-off.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio. Email donaldlrollins@ gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2023

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