The New York Times just broke the story that Dianne Feinstein died Thursday night. Her staff was informed at 9:00 a.m. this morning.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the trailblazing Democratic power broker who served in the Senate for 30 years, died on Thursday night, according to a family member.
In recent years, Ms. Feinstein, 90, had suffered from frail health and memory issues that made it difficult for her to function alone and prompted calls for her to step down, which she consistently rejected.
Her condition had grown more acute over the past several months, after a bout with shingles that caused serious complications, including a case of encephalitis, and prompted her to begin using a wheelchair in the halls of the Capitol.
Ms. Feinstein’s long and very public decline shone a spotlight on the advanced age of members of Congress and particularly the Senate, where many continue to serve long after retirement age.
What is known is that Feinstein was reluctant to resign because she did not want a crucial seat on the Judiciary Committee to go to a Republican. So she hung on, until the bitter end, much in the same manner that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, in order to keep the court as balanced as it was.
Both gambits failed. When Justice Ginsburg died, Mitch McConnell used the opportunity to get Amy Coney Barrett on the bench, despite the fact that the election was six weeks away. Now Feinstein has also died in the saddle, and we don’t know what will happen now.
Updates and new stories will be posted as developments occur.
I wonder how long it will take for Biden,(which one(?)), to be investigated by the maga house for murder?
Sadly, my first thought was oh no what’s going to happen to the judiciary committee and not on my gosh what amazing life of service she has given to this country. That should’ve been first if we weren’t in so much peril now. Crap!
Don’t feel any guilt. That was precisely my reaction. Just like when Justice Ginsburg died, my reaction was, “OMG. What will McConnell do?” And I knew what he would do and he did it. And now an entire generation has to live with it.
The message here, though, is people really do need to retire so these disasters don’t keep happening. My fear is that this is going to be leveraged against Joe Biden. The ageist attacks on him are incredible.
She should have resigned years ago. I will always believe her staff kept egging her on and propping her up, because he senior staff at least got off on wielding the power of a senior and once respected Senator. Not one of them should ever be hired by ANY Democrat ever again. If one thinks the mess on the Judiciary Committee has been bad, we are now headed into a govt. shutdown and a Democratic Senator short in getting things back to running again. Sure as I’m sitting here Machin and Sinema are scheming on how to f**k over our Party and the country because they’ve got leverage again.
Newsome can appoint somebody immediately, can he not? He must have been prepared for this eventuality. Frankly, I’d like it if he’d appoint Adam Schiff, although maybe Schiff is needed more in the House now. Damn, what a monkey wrench this has thrown!
Katie Porter perhaps?
I read he doesn’t plan on selecting anyone currently running.
And after all of Nancy Pelosi’s hard work reenacting “Weekend at Bernie’s” to keep her in place until her buddy Adam Schiff could take the seat.
Now we’ll see if Newsome is true to his word and appoints Barbara Lee to fill the vacancy.
While we’re busy catastrophizing and what if-ing and shoulding on Feinstein, let’s also keep in mind she was the first female mayor of San Francisco, one of the first two women in the Senate, a staunch defender of gay rights and proponent of an assault weapons ban among many other accomplishments. Let’s not lose sight of her strengths in the rush to panic and run the right-wing scripts. Newsom will appoint an appropriate replacement, and there is a crowd of excellent Dems running for her seat. I don’t see the same level of angst aimed at McConnell, who also looks like he’s at death’s door, that we’ve seen thrown at Feinstein. It’s okay if you’re a man, I guess.
Thanks Carol. We should mourn her death but celebrate her great life that achieved so much.
I feel like this article on the day of her death should have been about her extensive accomplishments. She deserved that. There are days ahead to focus on why she didn’t step down and what to do going forward.