Posted on 09/29/2023 6:07:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
KEY POINTS
* Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator from California, has died at age 90.
* Feinstein’s death leaves vacant her powerful Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor.
* The Democratic senator’s decades-long career was studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment.
* Ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining issues facing prisons and jails during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on Capitol Hill June 2, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator from California, has died at age 90, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News on Friday.
The Democrat’s passing marks the end of a boundary-pushing political career that spanned more than half a century, studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment.
Feinstein had planned to retire at the end of her current term in 2024.
Feinstein’s death leaves vacant her powerful Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor.
A San Francisco native, Feinstein cleared a path for women in politics as she rose the ranks of leadership. After two failed bids for mayor, she was elected president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors in 1978, becoming the first woman to hold the title.
Feinstein was made acting mayor of the city later that year, after then-Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, her colleague on the board of supervisors, were assassinated by Dan White, a former member of the same board.
In later interviews, Feinstein recalled finding Milk’s body and searching for a pulse by putting her finger in a bullet hole.
Feinstein was the first to announce the murders to the press. She was appointed mayor a week later, again becoming the first woman elevated to the office.
The tragedy had the side effect of jumpstarting Feinstein’s political career, but the trauma of the day stuck with her even decades later.
“I never really talk about this,” Feinstein said with a sigh when asked about the murders in a CNN interview in 2017.
Her streak of firsts continued at the national level. Feinstein lost a gubernatorial bid in 1990, but two years later won a special election to the U.S. Senate, becoming California’s first female senator.
Weeks later, the state’s second female senator, Barbara Boxer, was sworn into office, making California the first state in the U.S. to be represented in the Senate by two women.
Their 1992 elections helped define the “Year of the Woman,” in which four Democratic women were newly elected to the Senate — more than doubling the chamber’s female representation.
In the Senate, Feinstein clinched some of her biggest legislative achievements. She wrote and championed the 1994 assault weapons ban, both a landmark bill and a continuation of a career-long effort to enact stricter gun controls.
The legislation passed Congress and was signed by then-President Bill Clinton, albeit with major compromises including a 10-year sunset provision. The ban expired in 2004 during the administration of George W. Bush.
She also sponsored bills that protect millions of acres of California’s desert, worked to create a nationwide AMBER alert network, helped reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and fought for the release of a lengthy report detailing the CIA’s torture practices, among other accomplishments.
Over her three decades in the Senate, Feinstein has generally been seen as a political moderate in her party. In the 1990s and 2000s, that reputation made Feinstein highly popular — but much of that popularity eroded in the proceeding years as California’s political tint shifted toward deeper shades of blue.
As her centrism grew increasingly out of fashion, Feinstein’s standing in her final stretch in office was further diminished by a crescendo of skepticism about her mental fitness for the Senate.
A damning report from the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2022 featured unnamed Democratic colleagues of Feinstein fretting over her apparent decline in mental acuity. Feinstein defended her ability to govern, while acknowledging that she had been going through an “extremely painful and distracting” period as her late husband, financier Richard Blum, had battled cancer.
By the time Feinstein announced that she would not seek reelection at the end of her term in 2024, multiple Democratic politicians had already launched campaigns to succeed her.
Wishful thinking, but this would be a good time to install a Republican as leader of the Senate. Delay swearing in Feinstein's replacement until after the budget fight is over. In the meantime, ram through everything possible to push Biden's blood pressure up.
Pretty sure I get it. 🤔👍
Rubbing my hands in glee as she was wont to. Especially when it came to taking guns from law abiding legal gun owning citizens it’s a good day. Rejoice, everybody!
Schiff will grieve that Newsom will fill the position with a black woman. If you see a pencil neck, bulgy eyed black face with a dress on you’ll know what’s going on.
Hah! It doesn’t matter, it will be a liberal and heard on the news today it will be a black woman and more liberal than Feinstein.
Newsome will appoint whoever Deep State tells him to appoint.
And I will say this for Deep State.
While it doesn’t have a deep bench, it does have a YUGE collection of dunce chairs...
Can you imagine the drooling going on right now in Widdle Adam Schiff’s office and how hot the phone line is between there and Sacremento?
Funny joke:
A man asks God how long a billion years is to him. God said, it is as a single minute.
Then the guy asks God how much a billion dollars is to him. God said, it is like a penny.
Then the man says to God, May I have a penny. God said, “Sure, give me a minute.”
She presided over and participated in the destruction of California.
If you ask yourselves ‘how did we get here?’, she’s one of the main reasons.
I wonder if they went through her pockets looking for loose change...
Unfortunately, the America-hating replacement will be far worse. Contain your joy for it will be short lived.
Either later today or tomorrow.
“I wonder if they went through her pockets looking for loose change...”
I’m surprised the rats didn’t prop her up and pull a Weekend At Bernie’s. They’re already doing it with Biden...lol.
DiFi answers the Dems prayers!!!!
With her death they solve the “Joe Biden Problem”. Kamala announces that her first priority is to her fellow Californians and resigns as Veep to enter the Senate. The Dems appoint their true candidate as the new Veep. In a few months, health, scandal or death brings down Biden and the dream candidate steps into the Oval Office and runs in `24 as the incumbent.
Ladies and Gentlemen, get ready for Madame President, Big Mike Obama!!!!
With the image of Rod Blagojevich still fresh in his head, Newsome must be extremely careful as to who he talks to over the next six weeks or so................
Condolences for her family. I am sure that when not being a Constitution-denier and socialist she was a nice person exclusively to rich people she cared about.
I thank God I got to see California at it zenith in the early 70’s when it was still a nice place. I was stationed at 29 Palms Marine Corps Base....................
One of the toughest scriptures, for me, is this:
Exodus 9:12 But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh...
I would love to have coffee with Pharaoh and Feinstein at Heaven’s cafeteria and ask them a few questions about what they were thinking.
And she cast a vote just yesterday!
The USA resembles the Soviet Union more every day.
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