OPINION:
When Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate after being out for more than two months due to serious health conditions, reporters asked the 89-year-old California Democrat how her colleagues greeted her after her lengthy absence.
“No, I haven’t been gone,” the California Democrat said. “You should follow the — I haven’t been gone, I’ve been working.”
One reporter asked whether she had been working from home. “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please, you either know or don’t know.”
Well, we know. Ms. Feinstein missed more than 70 votes in the Senate when she was holed up in her California mansion. And while some colleagues in Congress have supported Ms. Feinstein (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a fellow California Democrat, said it’s sexist to demand that she resign), Californians feel very different.
Sixty-seven percent of registered voters in the state say Ms. Feinstein’s latest illness, which has left her in a wheelchair, has left her unfit for office, according to the poll conducted by University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.
In addition, on whether she should resign, a plurality (42%) said she should. And 27% said Ms. Feinstein should serve in the Senate until the end of her term in 2025 (her current plan), while 31% said they were undecided.
Ms. Feinstein missed months of Senate votes after contracting shingles that led to a case of Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which can cause facial paralysis and hearing loss. She also suffered encephalitis, which is swelling of the brain.
When she finally returned to work, Ms. Feinstein was in a wheelchair. But she and her staff claim she’s just fine — and they’re going to great lengths to shield the senator’s health from public scrutiny.
Last week, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times wrote that he was “shouted at” when he tried to take a picture of Ms. Feinstein.
“I photographed the senator as a staff member tried to hide her wheelchair behind a pillar at a low-profile exit last week. A Capitol Police officer shouted at me to move back — despite already being 30 feet away from the senator. Feinstein waved as she was escorted to a waiting vehicle,” photographer Kent Nishimura wrote.
The photographer also claimed that Senate security is going to great lengths to protect Ms. Feinstein from the press.
“For two days in a row last week, the Senate sergeant-at-arms office has said her arrival at the Capitol ‘is closed press,’ shutting doors and using the Capitol police to chase journalists out of hallways and public spaces. This unprecedented act of restricting press freedom only raises more questions,” he said.
Ms. Feinstein’s office denied that it is shielding the senator from the media.
“Our office has not asked photographers to not take pictures of her in her wheelchair,” spokesman Adam Russell said in a statement to the Times. “We did ask, and continue to ask for safety reasons, that photographers and reporters give her space, particularly when entering and exiting her vehicle.”
A spokesperson for Ms. Feinstein did say: “While the encephalitis resolved itself shortly after she was released from the hospital in March, she continues to have complications from Ramsay Hunt syndrome.”
As if we needed yet another reason why Ms. Feinstein needs to retire, The New York Times (of all sources) finally reported on an incident from last year that shows just how confused and out of touch the senator is.
A source told The Times that Ms. Feinstein had an odd reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris presiding over the Senate, one of the only official duties the Constitution sets out for the veep.
Ms. Feinstein turned to her colleagues and said, “What is she doing here?” the liberal newspaper said. In fact, Ms. Harris has cast 29 tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate since she took office, so she’s there a lot.
The Times story was headlined, “Feinstein, Back in the Senate, Relies Heavily on Staff to Function.” The piece cataloged all the ways the senator is unable to do her job. She “is surrounded by a retinue of staff members who serve not only the roles of typical congressional aides — advising on policy, keeping tabs on the schedule, drafting statements and speeches — but also as de facto companions to a senator whose age, frail health and memory issues make it difficult for her to function alone.”
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Ms. Feinstein has been in public service for decades, so good on her. But her constituents now want her to leave — gracefully or otherwise.
And actually, the graceful exit is long gone. Now, the ungraceful exit is all that’s left — and Californians want her gone.
Say good night, Dianne.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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