The reason is because it was political suicide not to.
She better not try to get on the ticket in 2004. Hillary has that in her cross-hairs.
And yet I think she's kicking off her own campaign right here.
...who should be the voice of the Democratic Party. And on that point, Feinstein openly admits that "right now we don't have that individual." [Uh Oh! Don't we have Hillary?]
She clearly doesn't think it's the party's current chairman, Terry McAuliffe... [Uh oh! He's the Clintons' own man. Chi-Fi is getting into very dangerous territory here.]
As for who she might like to see get the Democratic nomination in 2004? "Well, John Kerry of Massachusetts might be one... [Could she be considering herself as Kerry's VP?]
How about Al Gore? "Too early to tell. I can't quite figure out yet who he is." She dismisses poor ole Al.
Joe Lieberman? "I mean, I know who Joe is -- but I don't know. . . . [Joe is less easily dismissed, but apparently he's not on Chi-Fi's elect or partner-with list.]
Summary: She won't make a specific recommendation, but she just dissed Hillary, Al, and Joe and at least leans toward Kerry. This should be interesting because the one thing Hillary fears more than any other IMO is another potential first woman president type--at least right now.
I really hope I'm right about this because then Hillary herself will be blowing Chi-Fi out of the water. A community service to be sure, but done for the wrong reason. I don't care about the latter. This is probably the only Hillary action I would cheer on.
OTOH the most likely result is that Hillary would use her files and Chi-Fi will ultimately come out fully supporting Hillary...