Should Dianne Feinstein Step Down?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Twitter is a dangerous place to discuss politics.  It can be brimming with good ideas (the map data on that site is extraordinary if you follow the right people, brimming with insights that campaigns used to spend millions for that now people do as a hobby), but it can also be a place that's dangerous for the worst or biggest reactions.  Matt Laslo, a reporter with Vice News, NPR, & Rolling Stone on his resumé, recently published a conversation between Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren, & Amy Klobuchar.  Part of the conversation included Feinstein, confused about where her keys are, asking for them, and then having a seemingly innocent conversation about her dog with Warren & Klobuchar, followed by Feinstein having to be told by one of her staffers "I have you down as a "no" vote on this bill, the one that they were about to vote on."

All of this seems a bit silly, and relatively innocent.  We all can be a bit infantilizing about our pets and staffers frequently have to keep track of members of Congress effects.  In terms of the votes, it's possible that Feinstein was simply confused which of the many amendments they were about to vote on, and the comment about "having you down as a 'no'" might have been something they'd already discussed in the senator's office earlier.  In a vacuum, this is pretty harmless.

But Feinstein has been the subject of near constant scrutiny for the past year, as major news outlets, including her hometown's San Francisco Chronicle, have suggested that Feinstein's mental acuity is not what it once was.  Anecdotal evidence from stories suggest similar questions about Feinstein's abilities, indicating that the 89-year-old senator has "good days and bad ones," but the theme seems to be clear in these stories, one of questioning her abilities as a senator due to her age, and whether or not her cognitive abilities have declined to a point where it's inappropriate for her to be serving in such an important position.

Stories about politicians' age are not new, and need to be handled with grace.  Frequently we see politicians attacked for their age when it's just that they're slowing down.  Joe Biden has frequently been criticized for his age, but his regular public appearances indicate that while he is no longer 55, he's very much in control of major issues of the day, and just completed the most successful week of his career.  This isn't just an attack levied at Democrats-Republican politicians like Donald Trump, William Roth, & Chuck Grassley have all had such attacks placed against them, though it's not entirely clear that it wasn't just a dulling of their abilities as opposed to them being mentally unable to hold their offices (regardless of what you think of their politics).  Without a medical doctor giving us their vitals, you can't really say whether they are fit for their roles.

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC)

But it's also clear that politicians have held office to the point where it was inappropriate to hold that office.  Sen. Strom Thurmond toward the end of his career exhibited visible signs of mental & physical decline-watch videos of him at his 100th birthday, and you can see that he was not physically able to be a senator anymore, much less (at the time) third in line to be President of the United States due to his position as President Pro Tempore.  Perhaps the most famous example of a decline in mental health of a major political figure was Ronald Reagan, who in the final years of his presidency was showing clear signs of mental acuity loss.  Figures ranging from Lesley Stahl to Ronald Reagan Jr. have brought up that during the final years of Reagan's presidency, he was showing obvious signs of forgetfulness and potentially signs of early-stage dementia...despite having the nuclear codes & running a world superpower during the height of the Cold War.

All of this brings us back to Feinstein.  Feinstein, for what it's worth, denies these allegations and if you look at some of her public appearances, some of this does feel a bit like armchair diagnoses rather than something more concrete.  Feinstein did an excellent job during the public hearings interviewing Ketanji Brown Jackson, sounding cogent & senatorial if a bit more measured in her speeches than she would've 15 years ago.  But, it's worth noting, Ronald Reagan sounded great during his 1992 RNC speech for George HW Bush, despite most agreeing by that point that he had started to have a sharper mental decline (he'd be publicly diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years later).  People who are suffering from mental acuity declines have good days & bad days, and honestly, it's hard to tell from the outset whether or not Feinstein's case is at a point where she should stand down, but I think it's a conversation we have to have.  Feinstein, should the Democrats win the Senate again in November, will become the President Pro Tempore in the next session with the retirement of Pat Leahy, making her (like Thurmond) third in line for the presidency.  If she cannot hold such a responsibility, she needs to step aside.

I think what should be clear to all, though, is that this is a sad decision.  I'm of the mind that Feinstein should resign if these rumors are remotely true, and the fact that most of her colleagues are not rushing to her aid (or she's not regularly doing interviews or public appearances like Biden) make me think there's at least some foundation to these allegations.  But Feinstein has now become on social media a punchline, which is not only unfair but also wrong.  Feinstein's career is pretty remarkable.  She was the first female mayor of San Francisco, the first female nominee for a major party to run for governor of California, and the state's first female senator.  She was the first female Senate Judiciary Chair and the first woman to chair a presidential inauguration.  She was on the shortlist to be Walter Mondale's vice presidential running-mate.  She is more moderate than your average Democrat, which can be frustrating at times, but she's been a longtime advocate for women's rights, and in her three decades in office she was a key vote on everything from the Affordable Care Act to the Federal Assault Weapons Ban to this past week's votes for the Inflation Reduction Act.  Feinstein should be remembered as a pioneer for women in politics, but at this point it's hard to see her not joining other politicians who waited too long to leave the political stage, and her legacy will be similar to Thurmond's, someone who waited too long in the seat of power, long enough to become something of a punchline...whether rightly or wrongly.