UNITEDSTATES/She’s been a liberal lioness of the United States Senate for three decades. But when California senator Dianne Feinstein suddenly vanished for three months, the Democratic party’s agenda ground to a halt.

One of two senators representing the state of California, its 40 million residents and its economy, which is the fifth-largest in the world, Feinstein is one of the most influential women in America.

The legendary legislator also sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has become crucial to the Democrats’ power in the last year.

With Republicans controlling the lower House of Representatives, appointing federal judges is one of the few things Democrats can do with their razor-thin majority in the Senate.

But 89-year-old Feinstein was hospitalized with a bad case of shingles in February, leaving her colleagues unable to push for judicial candidates who they say would protect access to reproductive care as well as voters’ rights.

As weeks became months, Feinstein’s fellow Californian, congressman Ro Khanna, said it was time for her to resign.

“We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty,” he said in April.

“While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfil her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.”

His comments set off a firestorm, with Feinstein’s backers accusing Khanna of everything from ageism to sexism.

“I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,” said Nancy Pelosi, former Democratic speaker of the House.

But when Feinstein finally returned to the marbled halls of the US Senate last week, her reappearance did nothing to dissuade those calling for her to finally call time on an illustrious career.

“I’ve been here,” she responded, seemingly confused when a reporter asked about her extended absence.

“No, I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.”

“You’ve been working from home is what you’re saying?” the reporter asked. 

“No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” Feinstein insisted. 

The shocking exchange between 89-year old Dianne Feinstein and a reporter from the LA times has been released.
Feinstein, inexplicably, argued that she has been in DC voting for the past several months while she was recovering from shingles in California.

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) 

Feinstein’s health has drawn the US into a delicate debate about how to handle the final act of an American stateswoman who may not be ready for the curtain to fall on her career.

The saga has also raised questions about who might be vying to replace Feinstein in an extraordinarily powerful chamber where job opportunities rarely open.

The lioness of the US Senate

Dianne Feinstein came to prominence in the aftermath of one of the worst acts of political violence in recent American history.

In 1978, mayor of San Francisco George Moscone was assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White over a workplace dispute.

Dan White also killed fellow supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. 

Feinstein, who was the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, found their bodies after the shootings.

Trembling and in shock, she had to be held up by the local police chief as she made her grim announcement on the steps of city hall.

“Both mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed,” she said, sending a ripple of gasps and cries through the crowd.

“The suspect is supervisor Dan White.”

The assassination propelled Feinstein onto the national stage. 

She served as the mayor of San Francisco for a decade, before levelling up to the United States Senate in 1992.

She and Barbara Boxer made history when California became the first state to send two women to the chamber.

“The myth that women can’t play in the big leagues is perhaps pierced once and for all,” she said.

Feinstein was one of the most influential Democrats in her party and a trailblazer for women.

She used her personal experience to lobby for tougher gun control, writing the country’s first ban on assault weapons in 1994.

As the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she also released a bombshell report accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of potentially violating the US constitution by trying to obstruct her investigation into their treatment of detainees.

But when her closest colleague, Barbara Boxer, decided to retire from politics in 2017 at the age of 76, Feinstein insisted she had more to do and ran for another term.

‘The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me’

It was in 2020 that the first reports of colleagues noticing a change in Feinstein’s behavior started leaking out.

In September, Democrats were devastated by the death of progressive icon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

They were also outraged that President Donald Trump was pushing to replace her just weeks before the election — something Republicans refused to do for Barack Obama when a supreme court seat opened up nine months before his term ended.

After a contentious week of confirmation hearings for nominee Amy Coney Barrett, the mood among Democrats was tense. But Feinstein seemed remarkably upbeat.

“This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” she said, before crossing the floor to hug her Republican colleague Senator Lindsey Graham.

The move sparked anger among Democrats, who became concerned several weeks later during a judiciary committee hearing with social media companies.

In the space of just a few minutes, she asked then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the exact same question twice, seemingly unaware she was repeating herself.

Last year, her hometown paper The San Francisco Chronicle spoke to several people in her orbit who claimed they were deeply concerned about her short-term memory issues and wondered if she was still fit to serve.

“She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring,” said an unnamed source, who claimed they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein several times during a recent conversation.

Feinstein pushed back against the newspaper’s allegations, saying she was still fit for her job, but asked for grace from her constituents as she grieved the loss of her husband.

“The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me, flying back and forth to visit my dying husband who passed just a few weeks ago,” she said.

“But there’s no question I’m still serving and delivering for the people of California, and I’ll put my record up against anyone’s.”

This year, as pressure mounted on her to either return from sick leave or to resign, Feinstein asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to replace her temporarily on the judiciary committee so that they could move forward with their work.

The Republicans blocked him, claiming they were doing so to support Feinstein from her predatory colleagues.

“During the past two years, there’s been a concerted campaign to force her off of the Judiciary Committee and I will have no part of that,” claimed Republican senator Susan Collins.

Forced back to work for the first time since February, Feinstein’s office detailed the extent of her complications from her bout of shingles.

She has been left with facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome and post-shingles encephalitis, which causes swelling of the brain.

“Age is somewhat separate from health,” said Christian Grose, a professor of political science from the University of Southern California

“A lot of times, if you’re older, voters are willing to re-elect you if you’ve otherwise had a history of vigour and vitality. But if there’s a consistent inability to do the job, voters have actually not always liked that.”

Her condition left many in the Senate wondering how she would be able to handle the mountain of paperwork and long days required of her post, but Feinstein insisted she was fine.

“I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis. I continue to work and get results for California,” she said in a statement.

While Feinstein has confirmed she will not run again in November 2024, some Democrats are wondering if she will be able to stay in power that long.

The people vying to succeed Feinstein

The game of thrones to be the Democratic nominee to replace Feinstein is already well underway.

Three powerful Californian members of congress are considered the frontrunners: Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee.

Congressman Adam Schiff gained national prominence during the first impeachment of Donald Trump, and he’s the protégé of Nancy Pelosi.

For many, he’s the establishment favorite and Feinstein’s likely successor.

But there’s a catch.

If Feinstein were to step down before the end of her term, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom would have the power to fill her seat until the next election.

Two years ago, he promised that if this happened, he would appoint a black woman to replace her.

That would potentially see Barbara Lee or another black female politician become a caretaker senator — and perhaps have the boost of incumbency — when she ran in the Democratic primary.

When Pelosi’s daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda, was seen wheeling Feinstein through the Senate last week, Politico said her presence “raised uncomfortable questions about whether Nancy Pelosi’s political interests are in conflict with Feinstein’s personal interests”.

Professor Grose pointed out that Pelosi and Feinstein families are both from San Francisco and have known each other for decades. But there are vested interests potentially at play. 

“I definitely think Feinstein staying through the end of 2024 versus resigning or, God forbid, dying — that would change the Senate dynamics for the election pretty dramatically,” he said. 

The US Senate, which constitutionally requires its members to be at least 30 but sets no mandatory retirement age, is a famously silver workplace.

The chamber’s median senator is 65.3 years old.

But Feinstein’s diminished health and the political maneuvering to replace her have raised a series of uncomfortable questions for Americans.

How do they respect the legacy of a trailblazing woman, while honoring the needs of California’s 40 million residents?

Is Feinstein truly unfit for the job, or is society unable to forgive any display of vulnerability by an older woman?

Professor Grose said he believed the intense focus on Feinstein could be in part be “due to gender”. 

Republican Strom Thurmond was over 100 when he retired and relied on staff to help him on and off the floor to cast his vote.

“People in DC knew about it, whispered about it, but there wasn’t any serious statewide or national coverage,” he said. 

But Professor Grose said a vacant seat in the US Senate was extraordinarily rare. 

“Rumours about her health and her capacity were popping up a couple of years ago and a lot of that was being driven by people who were ambitious, who wanted to run and want to make sure she didn’t run again,” he said.

“I think some of the attention to it, is due in part to how it’ll affect the dynamics of the 2024 campaign for Senate.”

Source: ABC News