Sen. Dianne Feinstein. (Photo: feinstein.senate.gov)
On the Passing of DiFI
She was a good mayor and, in light of what the city has become today, it could very well be said she was a very good mayor
By Thomas Buckley, September 29, 2023 8:51 am
California Senator Dianne Feinstein died this morning, thus bringing an end to a long career of public service.
She was thrust into the spotlight when Mayor George Moscone was assassinated in San Francisco’s City Hall and the city’s Board of Supervisors (city council) chose her – then president of the Board – to become the mayor.
Feinstein was roundly praised for her actions – stolid and sober – in the aftermath of the shooting (she herself had survived an assassination attempt by a far-left terrorist group.)
She remained mayor and was a good mayor and, in light of what the city has become today, it could very well be said she was a very good mayor.
She was a liberal, but an old-fashioned liberal. While very pro-choice and very anti-gun, she also understood the necessary mechanics of government and – save for those two positions – could not be said to have been terribly far to the left at all.
In other words, she was a liberal – not a progressive and, God help us, not woke.
And, as a former mayor, she understood cities and it was in that context that I met her on a few occasions.
And I was impressed.
She knew the details of the issues, she knew how hard it was for cities to deal with the other levels of government, and she knew cities had their own characters. For example, she agreed with and supported proper forest management – clearing and such – to help reduce fire risk. Didn’t quite get there but it is an example of how reality – and not uber-strict ideology – actually mattered to her.
Feinstein not only listened but she heard and she engaged. She and her staff were incredibly responsive when it came to local issues, something that the other California senator I had to deal with – Barbara Boxer – was not.
Really, really, not. Boxer, unlike Feinstein, spent most of her time bloviating and scheming, desperately trying to snare her dream job of vice president (seriously – that’s what she wanted and it is very quite possible that the selfish, soulless, conniving character of Selena Mayer on the fantastically terrifying HBO comedy “Veep” was based, in part, on her.)
Feinstein had no grander political ambition and really didn’t ever have to worry about getting re-elected – even Republicans in California voted for her – allowing her to focus more than usual on serving the state.
Politics always plays a role in politics, but when it came to most of the nuts and bolts local issues, Feinstein and her staff really did not play that game too often.
Her very public decline was very difficult to stomach, especially knowing it was DC Democrats that kept her in office to make sure there was no “gap” that would allow Republicans to maybe sneak something through. Of course, she almost certainly wanted to stay herself but she did not appear to be able to make that decision rationally – an understandable reaction to other people trying to push her out.
And people on the left did, just as they demanded Justice Ginsberg quit the bench so they could appoint a justice of their choosing. She said no and now the standing of the once-goddess like “Notorious RBG” is shattered.
And now for the icky part – who gets her seat?
First, Gavin Newsom did not want this to happen – it puts him in an incredibly tricky position.
The primary election to replace Feinstein in the fall is five months away and the filing deadline to run for the office is not technically until December 8. Newsom has promised to appoint a black woman to the seat but he also strongly wishes that that person be a caretaker, a person who will say “neat – sure I’ll be a Senator for a year or so and it will be fun and I’ll be able to say for the rest of my life I was a senator – very cool – and then I’ll happily go away.”
Hence the bind – and the not nearly as far-fetched as it sounds idea of sliding Oprah Winfrey into the job.
Rep. Barbara Lee is a candidate and she is a black woman and she has essentially demanded Newsom put her in, in part reasoning that “hey, I’m already running for it so you know I want it and I’m the senior black woman in state politics anyway so bypassing me would be an insult,” but there are other considerations.
First, Rep. Nancy Pelosi – a very very good friend of Gavin’s and part of the Bay Area cabal that has guided and greased both his business and political careers – is backing the truly and dangerously awful Adam Schiff for the seat and she would not at all appreciate installing on his rivals as the “incumbent,” with all of the advantages that brings.
Second, there’s the other main challenger for the seat, Rep. Katie Porter. While, like Schiff, actionably putrid, she is a progressive darling and Newsom’s wokerati backers would not appreciate her getting cut off at the knees by a Lee appointment.
Third, the non-candidate idea appeals to Newsom for personal reasons – essentially he will be able to play senator by phone, controlling whatever they do in exchange for the appointment to the taxpayer-funded ego trip that such an appointment would entail.
Newsom could – and probably will – act quickly to fill the seat as Democrats are all too cognizant that their two-vote majority just sunk to one. Of course, there is a worry that, since the deadline to run for the seat is not until December, a quickly-appointed caretaker could decide “heck with it – I’m gonna try to stay” and run.
And that would be a very humiliating problem.
One could assume that right about now Gavin wishes he had married a black woman.
Wait a sec – she was an “actress,” so she knows how to put on makeup…
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RIP, Senator Feinstein.
Genuinely sad to see her passing. The very last the old “New Deal Democrat” generation. The sort of Democrat sane reasonable people could vote for. The fact I had to look up who the current other senator is gives a real indication of what worthless non-entities the current generation of senior state Democrats are. That even such an unimpressive member of the state assembly as Barbara Boxer was in a whole different (superior) league from the current lot. That bad. And Boxer was never more than a joke. Even back in the day when she could only headline in the Marin IJ.
The real tragedy here is that Feinstein was not allowed to retire in dignity more than a decade ago. Her decline over the last decade has become increasingly gruesome to watch. Although as time passed it became more and more obvious why she was being kept in office. All the alternatives were either nutcases, psychopaths or totally corrupt.
So now for the first time in over 100 years we not only have two politicall non-entities as senators. But people who are total non-entities period. Party machine hacks who never had a real job in their lives outside party politics.
As for Oprah. She is loathed in Montecito for very good reasons. Long before even Fat Markle turned up. If I were the Democrats I would do a due diligence on her “Business Empire”. She’s living off cash flow not ROI income. She aint worth what Fobes etc says she is worth. You could say she’s the ZZZZ Best in the business.
A nostalgic reference for those who were in SoCal in the 1980’s. You remember those blanket TV ads. And how it all ended
Ah the “good old days” when extreme leftists still had a veneer of respectability.
California didn’t lose a Senator today – the state of Washington did.
Patty Murray is the one who’s been *helping* Feinstein vote for the past couple years, and if you think Patty Murray took into consideration how California residents felt on the issues when she pulled the Feinstein lever, you’re as whacked in the head as Fetterman.
Ah Patty Murray. Now there’s an interesting story. About how a very illegal “stock options” deal from Real Networks worth millions of dollars helped finance her first run for Senate. I wonder why she never went to prison for that considering what happened to lesser folk who tried that kind of fraud.
Must have be Rob Glaser’s very persuasive charm.
Thomas, I also liked Senator Feinstein a lot, and for many of the same reasons you cited.
As for your other comments, it seems you don’t “get” what progressives are or want.
First, a “progressive” is a liberal who’s tired of the ways that term has been trashed by conservatives. Senator Feinstein championed environmental protection, reproductive rights, workers’ rights, the labor union movement and gun control. Whether you call these “liberal” or “progressive” values is only a matter of semantics.
As for whether she was “woke,” I suggest you offer a coherent definition of the term before you use it any more. Because that term originated in African-American circles, and the way it’s been misappropriated, mocked and denigrated is a pretty clear example of dog-whistle racism.
You’ve misinterpreted why progressives wanted both RBG and Feinstein to step down rather than die in office and why there’s nothing “shattered” or even stained about RBG’s legacy. It might help to realize that progressives’ primary objective is to get government doing good stuff for ordinary people. “Conservative” voices have the primary objective of making government disappear so that “market forces” and established power-elites can wield power. If you understand that, you might understand that progressive objectives can’t be served by incapacitated representatives or justices. The current federal situation, wherein the “Freedom Caucus” is just fine with shutting the government down with no regard for the financial losses that will result exemplifies this key difference.
I’ll bet Newsom already knows whom he will appoint to Feinstein’s seat and when. He’s not as spectacular a strategist as Pelosi, but he comes close.
Maybe you should explain why “Gavin wishes he had married a black woman.” That’s a bizarre comment, made even more creepy by your comment that Jennifer Newsom knows how to put on makeup. Was that some kind of reference to blackface?
“It might help to realize that progressives’ primary objective is to get government doing good stuff for ordinary people.”
@Science Facts, it might help your credibility if before you start attacking conservatives, you explain why woke progressive leaders, like those in BLM, were enriching themselves; instead of using the money that they collected from individual and corporate donors ($$$ millions) for the purpose of, as you claim, “doing good stuff for ordinary people”. The evidence shows that these progressives are just a bunch of grifters. All of this is well-documented; as in the case of Ibram Kendi: https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-downfall-of-ibram-kendi?publication_id=1248321&post_id=137520062&isFreemail=true&r=254802.
So Ibram Kendi is a “woke progressive leader”?? What state and district does this “leader” represent? Or are you expecting Newsom to appoint him to DiFi’s seat?? Who voted for him? And, since Thomas hasn’t stepped up, maybe you can define what “woke” means.
Hey Science Fiction, here is a definition of “woke”: a leftist Democraptic puke!
San Francisco streets are Progressive.
I could have a lot of fun with definitions of woke which would send our “fact” guy into orbit. Suffice it to say that woke means believing anything but the truth and believing those lies with insane passion. Woke seeks out lies and won’t listen to anything but lies.
So, “woke means believing anything but the truth and believing those lies with insane passion”? But that doesn’t work, because that would mean people who passionately deny that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election are somehow “woke.” I’m confident that nobody of any persuasion intends that meaning, which clearly fits your definition.
BTW, “leftist Democraptic puke” replaces one meaningless invective with another, so it doesn’t help. The word’s origins are African-American. If “woke” is nothing more than an African-American word, misappropriated to insult, like “dirtbag” or “slimeball,” then it’s a racist dog-whistle. It’s no better than “spearchucker.”
Yes Science Fiction wokes origins are African-American but it has developed into what the leftist Democraptic pukes have become today. And I don’t need a lecture about racism or “racist dog-whistle” from the likes of leftists like you. The Democrat party is a racist party that gave us the KKK, Jim Crow, Black voter suppression, segregation, and many racist political leaders. Political leaders like: George Wallace, Robert Byrd (KKK member), Joe Biden, Lyndon Johnson, Hillary Clinton, FDR, Woodrow Wilson, and Al Sharpton to name JUST A FEW.
@Science “Facts”, my high school was 40% blacks, 38% whites, 20% hispanic/asian, 2% Other. The words used, only by blacks, to separate themselves from the rest of us in school, were “bloods (their group)” and “skins (the rest of us)”. So the blacks used these racist words “bloods/skins” to classify people and they used them often – pickup basketball games at lunch hour were always bloods vs skins IF you wanted to participate with them. That’s the way they wanted it. So if you are saying that the word “woke”, invented by African Americans, is being used as a “racist dog-whistle”, then you are just confirming what we all know is true – that blacks are just as racist as any other people. Why invent a word that separates by race in the first place? Btw, I watched Hakeem Jeffries, a progressive LEADER, using the words “extreme MAGA” in just about every sentence he uttered in describing the debate between Republicans on avoiding a government shutdown. Since WHEN is anyone who believes in the ideas of America First and Make America Great Again a right-wing extremist? That’s what “extreme MAGA” implies. So, the MAGA label is now being used by extreme progressives as their own dog whistle, isn’t it?
@Raymond: I’m not sure if you’re being disingenuous or you truly don’t comprehend “racism.” Words are not racist, it’s the manner of usage. When a term originally used by African-Americans is misappropriated by people completely outside that community and hostile to it, to mean “something bad that cannot be defined but indirectly references the Black community,” that’s obvious dog-whistle racism. I suspect people like DeSantis have expanded “woke” to mean “something bad that cannot be defined but that express respect for Blacks, sexual minorities and people with disabilities.” Since it’s not a word I use, I’m asking the people who do use it to explain what it means, in a manner consistent with the way they use it.
If Black high school kids excluded you in some way decades ago, that doesn’t justify racism today, especially in public discourse. I’m truly sorry if your feelings were hurt. I grew up in Oakland, and I got along just fine with Black kids.
I can answer for Jeffries and MAGA, which is anything but a “dog-whistle.” The meaning is overt and references alignment with Trump policies, with racism, hostility toward the free press, and misogyny.
“I grew up in Oakland, and I got along just fine with Black kids.”
@Science “Phoney” Facts. Oh, I see. What part of Oakland – West Oakland? Did you attend Oakland High School? Public or private school? Why don’t you tell us so that we can really judge as to who is really being disingenuous? I didn’t have time to get my feelings hurt. I was too busy with important things like getting into college and fulfilling my parents’ aspirations for their children.
Remember whose office the Blasey Ford slander of Judge Kavanaugh went through. Yes, Senator Feinstein’s. In the end, there did not seem to be much of a difference between she and other democrat senators. All of them do the left’s bidding.
@AF, the office of Anna Eshoo approached Blasey Ford. They referred Ford and her left-wing activist attorney to the Senate Judiciary Committee where Feinstein sat. A lot of people did think that it was Feinstein’s office staff but they denied it.
Had America eons ago charted a course of responsibility, credibility and accountability the likes of Feinstein and others of her ilk from both sides of the isle(s) would have never amassed power. Feinstein and the aforementioned others pummeled America into our current state of irreconcilable debt all facilitated by the do gooders approach the subject senator and her cronies used to distract Americans from the grim reality that has befallen America.
The DC cabal wielded the destruction of America from the sandbox of delusion; Feinstein and the others relentlessly championed causes irrelevant to our preservation; causes that distracted the rank and file from a true and factual assessment of the catastrophic state we have entered; Feinstein was a gatekeeper of our abyss; she knew it yet continued her pursuit of invoking freedom grabbing legislation upon Americans: Feinstein was a fascist and in essence communist/collectivist all the while nurturing her husband’s close association with the Chinese.
Those who embraced Feinstein and her ilk congratulations are in order: You got what you wanted, you won.
America now forever only a notion of history, a moment in time, a blip when creativity And productivity were rewarded. For us collectively, we’ll never know what we lost until it’s formally gone; that juncture a half a billion dollars and six months away.
I would have advised DiFi using a metaphor of the state of Cali-calamity, “It is better to leave a party when you don’t want to, than when you do.”