Dianne Feinstein: Will she stay or will she go?

February 14, 2023 3:05 PM

"I'm not announcing anything' says Dianne Feinstein an hour after announcing she won't seek re-election in 2024."
posted by Marky (63 comments total)

She seriously needs to retire ASAP. I don't relish the prospect of people getting angry about Newsom making yet another Senate appointment without a party primary, but I'm also not inclined to take too many chances with 2024, so an appointment of a reasonably popular replacement this year would give them a lot of momentum.

I'd guess the top candidates for the primary OR a gubernatorial appointment would be Katie Porter or Adam Schiff, with Schiff getting an edge if it's an appointment situation.
posted by tclark at 3:09 PM on February 14, 2023 [18 favorites]

The most rock-solid PR move for Newsome would be to appoint Tom Hanks
posted by Jon_Evil at 3:14 PM on February 14, 2023 [15 favorites]

"I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends," Feinstein said in a statement sent from her U.S. Senate office and posted to her official website.

But during a brief interview Tuesday afternoon with Raw Story on Capitol Hill, Feinstein said she has not made an announcement about retiring from the Senate.

"Oh, no, I'm not announcing anything. I will one day," Feinstein told Raw Story, about an hour after her office released the statement on her decision not to seek re-election.
posted by doctornemo at 3:34 PM on February 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Could Newsom appoint himself?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:36 PM on February 14, 2023

I can't tell from this if the statement not to run is being rescinded, was issued in error, or if she was just having a momentary cognitive lapse. I admire everything she's accomplished as a politician and would just like to see her retire with dignity.
posted by Nelson at 3:41 PM on February 14, 2023 [14 favorites]

WHAT to this backtracking nonsense.

Seriously had concerns about her since she was hugging Republicans without a mask on here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:59 PM on February 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

To me it didn't come across to as backtracking but more "I'm not announcing anything about retiring early."

Hopefully she does, though.
posted by tclark at 4:01 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wonder whether someone in her office put the retirement statement out without her approval or whether the more obvious answer is it. My mother died of Alzheimer's in 2018 and would have turned 88 this summer and this sort of thing seems familiar from my experience with her.

On preview, hope tclark has it.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 4:04 PM on February 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I also wondered if someone submitted it for her. But seriously, if people are publicly Having Concerns About You for years, and others are already gunning for your slot publicly, um.....
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:05 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Feinstein has long since lost the ability to leave with dignity. Between being a bland institutionalist in an era that needed fighters, coddling fascists in the gop and continuing her term well into cognitive decline her legacy is irreparably tarnished.
posted by Ferreous at 4:07 PM on February 14, 2023 [52 favorites]

Is this an Onion article?
posted by grog at 4:22 PM on February 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

Yes, she should have retired in 2018 with dignity. Kevin De Leon who challenged has proven himself to be a terrible person. But the most populous state deserves real representation
posted by CostcoCultist at 4:29 PM on February 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

if she was just having a momentary cognitive lapse

I really don't think it's momentary, there have been concerning stories about her declining abilities for years.
posted by an octopus IRL at 4:40 PM on February 14, 2023 [7 favorites]

Feinstein cannot leave until someone successfully retrieves the Necronomicon from her office.
posted by delfin at 5:02 PM on February 14, 2023 [11 favorites]

She physically embraced Lindsey Graham after the hearings for Justice Gilead and thanked him for a job well done.

I don't give a fuck what her age is. Her job was to throw fireballs in defense of Roe. RBG could do that, she was even older. There she is, hugging Lindsey like a good sport. Roe was overturned, women - girls, are going to suffer.

Disconnected from the new reality at any age. Lindsey actually said (paraphrasing) 'we won't appoint a new justice in an election year, and you can use these words against me'. When he does exactly that - you fucking hug him? Women are going to die, we know that isn't hyperbole. Very magnanimous to embrace our enemy Diane, but he's firing machine guns at women while you embrace him.
posted by adept256 at 5:03 PM on February 14, 2023 [55 favorites]

Thanks for your service, Senator Feinstein.

Now retire immediately, before you destroy all the good you did.
posted by Pouteria at 5:20 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Now retire immediately, before you destroy all the good you did.

That ship sailed almost 20 years ago...
posted by Chuffy at 5:23 PM on February 14, 2023 [14 favorites]

Feinstein's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Any article that includes a line like this is just clickbait bullshit. They couldn't wait long enough to find out the true story but wanted the eyeballs on ads so here we are.
posted by srboisvert at 5:27 PM on February 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

"Seriously had concerns about her since she was hugging Republicans without a mask on here." --- posted by jenfullmoon at 5:59 PM on February 14 [+] [!]

I've had problems since I first heard Jello Biafra screech: Dear Humanitarian, Diane Feinstein ... like Ronald Reagan... Don't give two shits about people, they only care about their handlers... got no job and you're cut off the GA list... We don't want you we want more bombs, You wanna work? Join the Army!" (SLYT)
posted by symbioid at 5:32 PM on February 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

She is flawed but also deserves a lot of credit for what she accomplished. But now she should be retiring as quickly as possible and with as much dignity as possible intact.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:34 PM on February 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

She's so terrible, and has been demonstrably terrible for forty years. The world would have been a better place had she never been born. It's time to hold the institutionalists' feet to the fire before the fascists get the better of us. Ditching DiFi is a step in the right direction.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 5:36 PM on February 14, 2023 [10 favorites]

Yeah for a senator from "the most liberal state in the nation" she had been well below replacement value since at least the mid nineties. She's like Leahy was, a complete and utter waste of an extremely important position in a very safe and liberal state.
posted by Ferreous at 5:44 PM on February 14, 2023 [22 favorites]

I can't tell from this if the statement not to run is being rescinded, was issued in error, or if she was just having a momentary cognitive lapse.

There are stories that Feinstein has had cognitive lapses for several years now. This isn't a momentary thing. She should step down.
posted by zardoz at 5:58 PM on February 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

Jello was right about her.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:14 PM on February 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

she had been well below replacement value since at least the mid nineties

You're not wrong... but she's only been in national politics since winning a special election for senate in 1992, when California was not a reliable blue seat (the absolutely awful Pete Wilson (R) held the seat before her, until he won the governor's race in 1990 -- a position he held until 1999)

At the time, she was a reasonable reflection of the California electorate: foolishly right-leaning on the issues of money, social services, taxes and drugs/crime, while being very left-leaning on guns, abortion, gay rights, AIDS, and the intersection of Jesus and politics.

Over the next 30 years, California moved further and further left, as national right-wing politics got increasingly controlled by the "religious" right and the NRA, and as the tech/web industry exploded and the military bases closed, pushing "service member" and "defense contractor" out of the top 5 employment sectors in the state.

She did not evolve with her state, and even before her clear mental decline, she was out of touch with her constituents. This became radically apparent during the Obama years.

The problem is, nobody decent ever ran against her. This most recent election, she faced some competition from Kevin DeLeon, but it turns out, he's not a very good candidate either (and thanks to his behavior in LA, his political career is probably over). Prior to that race (which became possible with the change to our primary system), the choice that Californians had was between Feinstein and right-wing stunt candidates that knew they didn't have a chance. If California Democrats had a legitimate candidate to vote for, there's a good chance she'd have been out in the 2000s or early 2010s. Her continuing (and baffling) anti-marijuana position alone is good for at least a 40% drop in favorability in the state, and that's before you get to all of her GOP-leaning antics.

FWIW, I do think she knew that she was going to release a statement announcing retirement at the end of her term, but she didn't know that it had already gone out. That doesn't excuse it, but her answer was consistent with an unreleased statement of this nature.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), I got my first piece of fundraising mail (paper mail) from the Schiff for Senate campaign today.
posted by toxic at 6:21 PM on February 14, 2023 [17 favorites]

The US Congress needs to stop being a retirement home for rich white people and start representing the country.
posted by abucci at 6:24 PM on February 14, 2023 [33 favorites]

She's not retiring, she's gearing up for her presidential run.
posted by jferg at 6:30 PM on February 14, 2023 [9 favorites]

The problem is, nobody decent ever ran against her.

The way the Democratic party is structured is a big part of this. There's a huge amount of institutional inertia built into the system in favor of incumbents, (unless you're liberal, just ask Ed Markey!)
posted by Ferreous at 6:42 PM on February 14, 2023 [15 favorites]

I still haven't forgiven DiFi for screwing over San Francisco when she was mayor, spending like crazy to build popularity and get elected to the senate, leaving the city in debt soup. She's a monster who needs to be gone. If there's something good she's done (probably there's something, given how long she's been in her seat) I don't know what it is.
posted by anadem at 7:57 PM on February 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

This WaPo article mentions that Feinstein hasn't been doing her usual fundraising of late.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:58 PM on February 14, 2023

Everyone needs a trusted friend who's ready to tell them when it's time to leave the party. It's sad that it's gotten to this point.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:58 PM on February 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

If there's something good she's done

The assault weapons ban of 1994.

I mean, the weapons she was banning in 1994 were perceived to be owned primarily by (black) gang members, instead of white militia-types, so her motivation may have been questionable... but the legislation itself was demonstrably effective, apparently constitutional, and it shouldn't have been allowed to expire.
posted by toxic at 8:17 PM on February 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

It's a bit of a shock to see folks here who are apparently unaware of just how far gone Feinstein's memory and mind have been for years now. Completely forgetting that she announced her retirement an hour ago is very much in line with the stories her people (and other enablers in DC) have been unable to cover up. Here's the excellent Jane Mayer in The New Yorker from Dec 2020:

Dianne Feinstein’s Missteps Raise a Painful Age Question Among Senate Democrats

...many others familiar with Feinstein’s situation describe her as seriously struggling, and say it has been evident for several years. Speaking on background, and with respect for her accomplished career, they say her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have. They describe Feinstein as forgetting what she has said and getting upset when she can’t keep up. One aide to another senator described what he called a “Kabuki” meeting in which Feinstein’s staff tried to steer her through a proposed piece of legislation that she protested was “just words” which “make no sense.” Feinstein’s staff has said that sometimes she seems herself, and other times unreachable.

Years and years of covering for her. This isn't a "momentary cognitive lapse." She's been unable to serve for a while now.

would just like to see her retire with dignity

As others have pointed out, we are way past that point.
posted by mediareport at 5:18 AM on February 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

would just like to see her retire with dignity

As others have pointed out, we are way past that point.

It's like the old saying about the best time to plant a tree: 20 years ago would have been perfect, but second best would be today. The longer she waits (and waits, and waits) the worse it will get.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:32 AM on February 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

I can't tell from this if the statement not to run is being rescinded, was issued in error, or if she was just having a momentary cognitive lapse.

Possibly done without her knowledge?

BTW, here are the ages of current federal elected officials. Democrats are more likely to skew old.
posted by BWA at 6:05 AM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Her own staff told the press 2 years ago she would get a briefing and then quickly forget it had happened, and that the problem had been going on for years before that. I don't think we need to speculate too hard about why she forgot she had announced her retirement an hour previous to the question in the post.

Anyone with a friend or relative who's had dementia knows exactly what's happening here.
posted by mediareport at 6:17 AM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Direct link to Jane Mayer's 2020 New Yorker article:

Schumer had several serious and painful talks with Feinstein, according to well-informed sources. Overtures were also made to enlist the help of Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum. Feinstein, meanwhile, was surprised and upset by Schumer’s message. He had wanted her to step aside on her own terms, with her dignity intact, but “she wasn’t really all that aware of the extent to which she’d been compromised,” one well-informed Senate source told me. “It was hurtful and distressing to have it pointed out.” Compounding the problem, Feinstein seemed to forget about the conversations soon after they talked, so Schumer had to confront her again. “It was like Groundhog Day, but with the pain fresh each time.” Anyone who has tried to take the car keys away from an elderly relative knows how hard it can be, he said, adding that, in this case, “It wasn’t just about a car. It was about the U.S. Senate.”
posted by mediareport at 6:24 AM on February 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

Also, one reason this is so bad for Dems is they cling to an outdated seniority system in the Senate. Mayer again:

Unlike the Republican leadership in the Senate, which rotates committee chairmanships, the Democrats have stuck with the seniority system. Some frustrated younger members argue that this has undermined the Democrats’ effectiveness by giving too much power to elderly and sometimes out-of-touch chairs, resulting in uncoördinated strategy and too little opportunity for members in their prime.
posted by mediareport at 6:29 AM on February 15, 2023 [15 favorites]

I still haven't forgiven DiFi for screwing over San Francisco when she was mayor, spending like crazy to build popularity and get elected to the senate, leaving the city in debt soup. She's a monster who needs to be gone.

And let's not forget her Confederate flag bullshit and support for police harassment of LGBTQ people. Both of these are extremely salient issues in today's Congress, and a Feinstein that may end up thinking and talking like it's 1978 seems like a huge liability.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 6:33 AM on February 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

Is this an Onion article?

Funny you should mention that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:38 AM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Her hugging Lindsay Graham during the Amy Barrett hearings and publicly praising his handling of the process gutted progressives working to stop her nomination. Just gutted them. As "momentary lapses" go, that was so directly harmful to the country. She needs to go today.
posted by mediareport at 6:39 AM on February 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

> When he does exactly that - you fucking hug him?

At the end of the day, a lot of these people at that level of politics are pals. They butt heads on camera and then go out for a steak or whatever and have a good chuckle about it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:44 AM on February 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's crazy to me to hear that Feinstein was once a respected champion of progressive policies. That has never once been true in the decades that I've been aware of her politically.

Relatedly, I immediately stop listening to anyone who's made the argument (since 2016 or so) that people demanding Feinstein retire are operating from a place of misogyny. I understand that accusation of people who are anti-Pelosi or anti-Hillary—two politicians who I'm not particularly fond of but whose accomplishments I recognize—but Feinstein has been somewhere between "noticeably decaying corpse" and "reactionary bigot" for years and years. It's hard to tell how much of that is simply that the policies that used to mark her as progressive are now relatively conservative, and how much of it is that she literally cannot make sense of the political world enough to draw meaningful conclusions, but either way, she has long since become despicable. (Her treatment of climate protestors—what year was that, again?—was beyond appalling.)

Similarly, it's not ageist to note that progressive policies circa the mid-20th century no longer qualify as progressive, or to ask for politicians who are mentally well-equipped enough to do their jobs.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 6:45 AM on February 15, 2023 [11 favorites]

> BTW, here are the ages of current federal elected officials.

The average age of the 118th Congress is 58, which coincidentally is also the age of the youngest Boomers in 2023.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:47 AM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

It's hard to accuse me of misogyny when I say "Feinstein should step aside so that Katie Porter can take over that role."

Prejudice against the undead, perhaps, but not misogyny.
posted by delfin at 7:38 AM on February 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Feinstein's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Any article that includes a line like this is just clickbait bullshit.

In my experience, it is literally impossible to reach a human being in real time at any of her offices by telephone. I know because as a constituent I have tried often. It’s fine to shit on reporters when they deserve it but this was an unprovoked and unreasonable attack. Lots of officials just blow off media requests for comments, especially in cases like this. The media fucks up on the regular. This was not one of those times.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:02 AM on February 15, 2023 [14 favorites]

It's hardly clickbait; they had a statement from Feinstein herself directly to them, including posting the audio. Sure it'd be nice to get further comment but I'd rush that story out immediately too. Particularly since the only way we get a lot of information about Feinstein these days is after embarrassing stories end up in the media, often based on leaks from people in her office.
posted by Nelson at 8:11 AM on February 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

BTW, a few hours after Raw Story put this out there was an explanation in Huffington Post. Also various Murdoch outlets carried a similar story

“Well, I haven’t made that decision. I haven’t released anything,” Feinstein responded in the audio clip.
“Senator, we put out your statement,” a staffer told the lawmaker.
“You put out the statement?” Feinstein replied. “I didn’t know they put it out. So, it is what it is. I think the time has come.”

This story explicitly mentions it as a cognitive lapse. There's linked audio, it's from a different interview than Raw Story's. So she made this mistake more than once yesterday.
posted by Nelson at 8:15 AM on February 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

*winces*
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:45 AM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

She needs to retire today, not two years from now.
posted by Gadarene at 9:01 AM on February 15, 2023

My 89 year old dad has this exact problem of forgetting things just after you tell him. It’s maddening. No way should someone be in office if they are at this stage.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:21 AM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

My wonderful 82yo aunt is the same way. From minute to minute she forgets what she just said and how you just replied. Why some folks keep pushing away the clear reality that this is exactly where Feinstein is right now - on the word of her own staff over 2 years ago - is beyond me.

I would not want my aunt in the Senate now either, although she would have been fab there 20 years ago.
posted by mediareport at 11:53 AM on February 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Democrats are more likely to skew old.

Not by much. Per your own link, House Dems average a whopping 2 years older and Senate Dems 3 years older than their Republican counterparts. Not exactly a generation gap.

Remember that medians are a better measure of central tendency than averages, because they’re less skewed by outliers. According to Pew Research, those figures are even less dramatically different:

Overall, the median age of House Democrats is 58.1, while the median age of House Republicans is 57.4. In the Senate, Democrats’ median age is nearly on par with that of Republicans (65.4 vs. 65.3).

No argument from me that Feinstein (among others) should have retired eons ago, of course. But the numbers don’t actually imply that the GOP is markedly better at recruiting and supporting new blood. Apart from its (ahem) non-representative crop of Millennial headline-getters, that party is as infatuated with gerontocracy as it ever was.

We need to be less like them, not more.
posted by armeowda at 12:23 PM on February 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

This popped up in my twitter feed today,
from Julia Johnson , which features Feinstein telling a bunch of school children to piss off about the environment. "I know what I'm doing".
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:15 PM on February 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

WashPo op/ed: As Dianne Feinstein prepares to step aside, don’t forget what she has meant.

Hers has not been a graceful end. But as many times as she has been dismissed as a throwback to another era, I will always think of her as a bridge from a male-dominated Washington. Which is why I hope it will not be forgotten how much Dianne Feinstein has done to get us all to where we are now.

posted by Nelson at 1:36 PM on February 15, 2023

To be honest, I find this kind of article kind of annoying because it mostly elides why she was and is such a frustrating figure. She became a woman in the senate, a rarity at the time, and then became a complete institutionalist. She perpetuated so many shitty systems of the senate that actively harmed women. She rightfully should be remembered as the person who embraced Lindsey Graham during the confirmation of a judge who is hellbent on destroying the rights of women, racial minorities, and the LGBTQ community. That isn't an inspirational figure, that's a greek tragedy.
posted by Ferreous at 1:57 PM on February 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

Her politics aside, she really is not cognitively there. I have had occasion to meet with her personally for work and she is only barely managing to be propped up by her staff. It was apparent years ago. She cannot consistently follow the topic of a conversation for the duration of the conversation. It's really upsetting to see and her constituents deserve a senator who can actually serve, instead of this horrible charade her office is continuing.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:40 AM on February 16, 2023 [11 favorites]

There's been some leaks but does anyone know what the motivation is for the staff members?
posted by Selena777 at 10:15 AM on February 17, 2023

Once she's gone, they are out of jobs.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:32 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

and the influence/power that comes from being able to manipulate a senator who isn't in control of her faculties.
posted by Ferreous at 12:23 PM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

Democrat Barbara Lee announces bid to replace Dianne Feinstein in US Senate. (Guardian)
I wish we could have Katie Porter AND Barbara Lee.
And I sort of hope Adam Schiff will withdraw from that race in favor of a woman candidate. I think he's great but maybe he can stay in the House for now.
posted by Glinn at 9:08 AM on February 21, 2023

Barbara Lee is 76. No thanks, despite her good qualities.
posted by tavella at 10:09 AM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

To be precise, she would be 78 by the time of the election, and 84 by the end of any prospective first term. While there might be some edge cases where someone was the only prospective Democrat that could win that could justify that, California does not lack for good potential Senatorial candidates.
posted by tavella at 12:31 PM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]