Senator Dianne Feinstein is in declining health and can no longer do her job. That much has been obvious for a while, and well before the beginning of the most recent Congress.

As has been covered before on this blog, Dianne Feinstein is 89 years old, has been widowed for the second time in her life, and her staff is basically managing her Senate office at this point. Long gone are the days when Feinstein could deal with coached little kids who decided to protest at her office.

Nowadays, Feinstein doesn’t even know what is going on, as her Senate office announced that she wouldn’t be running for re-election, and she either forgot about it or wasn’t told. Either way, it just highlights that the super senior senator from California isn’t cognitively able to keep up. Feinstein’s recent bout of shingles has kept her out of the Senate as she recovers. Now, shingles can happen to most anyone who has had chicken pox in the past, but the problem with Feinstein being absent is that her vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee is absent, too.

Since the Democrats only have a 51-49 majority, this means that none of Joe Biden’s judicial picks are moving out of committee. So now Democrats are starting to grumble. They either want Feinstein to resign, or have Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to remove her from the Judiciary Committee.

Dianne Feinstein, 89, is MIA and has missed 60 of the 82 votes the Senate has taken this year, and her absence is holding up the confirmation of Biden's judicial picks at a really critical time. She needs to resign right now, not retire after the term. https://t.co/nHveg9JTyI

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) April 11, 2023

This is intolerable. We can’t waste time leaving these judges unconfirmed. Senator Feinstein has has a long & storied career. She must step down and let the Governor appoint her replacement. 40+ million people can not be represented by one senator. https://t.co/eZRK70BeTW

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) April 11, 2023

Shorter Dems: “get the old lady out of there, she’s holding us up!” This has now become all about moving those judicial picks forward. Even the “Pod Save America” Obama bros are chiming in that Dianne Feinstein needs to be put out to pasture.

.@jonlovett on Dianne Feinstein:

She is now preventing us from being able to confirm judges… As sad as it is to see someone who has had an incredibly storied and important career… Dianne Feinstein should no longer be in the Senate. She should resign. pic.twitter.com/aPPMVUJuq2

— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) April 11, 2023

On Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin agreed that Feinstein’s current absence is impacting the process of confirming judicial nominees. The committee is split 10-10 with Feinstein missing, with Durbin telling CNN that he currently cannot “consider nominees in these circumstances because a tie vote is a losing vote.”

Jon Lovett, Crooked Media co-founder and ex-speechwriter for former President Barack Obama, noted Durbin’s comments while suggesting Feinstein resigns.”

“There has been a lot of reporting about Dianne Feinstein no longer being fit to serve in the Senate representing the biggest state in this country,” Lovett said on his Pod Save America podcast.”

“She is currently out for shingles—that is sad, that is obviously not her fault—but because she is not in the Judiciary Committee, Durbin has said that it has made it basically impossible to move a lot of these lower Court nominees to the Senate for a vote, which means that Dianne Feinstein, who should not be in the Senate, is now preventing us from being able to confirm judges.”

“And as sad as it is to see someone who’s had an incredibly storied and long and important career and has done a lot of good for this state, I think what the people around Dianne Feinstein are doing, being part of this farce of having a lack of a senator and an important job, is really wrong,” Lovett added.”

“Dianne Feinstein should no longer be in the Senate. She should resign and more people should be calling on her to resign.”

There is a shocking lack of consideration for Dianne Feinstein the person here. I am no fan of her politics, but having watched my beloved grandmother slowly slip into cognitive decline for years before she passed away, I have some understanding of what may be happening for Feinstein. No one seems to really care what happens to her now, only that Democrats not lose their grip on the Senate, and keep shoving through as many judges as possible in the next two years. And Feinstein is holding up their party, so after they pay her some backhanded compliments, she’s being told to leave or be forced out.

Yes, Feinstein could resign and Gavin Newsom would appoint another Democrat to her seat. The question of who he would appoint is a brutal one, as Feinstein’s seat is already going to be a Democrat bloodbath, with Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Katie Porter have all announced that they are running. (Meanwhile, Katie Porter now has some allegations of spousal abuse to address. And if you think her primary opponents aren’t going to pick that up and run with it, then you’ve never met Adam Schiff.)

The Democrat engine is quite willing to steamroll Feinstein for standing in their way, after propping her up for years. But because we can’t actually trust that Feinstein can make her own decisions at this point, and the autonomy with which her staff has been operating, I don’t see her resigning. And it would be very difficult for Chuck Schumer to pull Feinstein off the committee without admitting that she isn’t up to serving at this point. And in the middle of it all is an elderly and frail woman who doesn’t seem to have anyone advocating for her. All the activists want is for her to get out of the way of their “progress.”

UPDATE 3:30 PM PDT
Well, this just got more complicated.

It’s time for @SenFeinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) April 12, 2023

Is Khanna, a fellow California Democrat, just the first to speak up? Will other Democrats follow suit?

Featured image: Senator Dianne Feinstein via Senate Democrats on Flickr, cropped, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)