For weeks, Sen. Dianne Feinstein was hammered over her extended absence because it meant that Democrats didn’t have the votes they needed to advance judges in the Senate Judiciary Committee. That absence — and lingering questions about whether she was mentally fit to do her job — prompted a handful of Democratic lawmakers including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to call for her resignation.
Feinstein’s return to the Senate in early May has only fueled more scrutiny on whether the 89-year-old remains up to her role, with Khanna reiterating his calls for resignation this week. The debate about what Feinstein should do and what Democrats should do about Feinstein has raised fresh questions about what a senator’s constituents deserve from them, what would happen if her death prompted a sudden vacancy, and the liabilities created by having a Senate in which lawmakers’ median age is 65.
Feinstein’s absence was triggered by a case of shingles, one reportedly worsened by complications. Her long recovery meant she worked remotely for more than two months and didn’t show up to votes. In a divided Congress, one thing Senate Democrats can do unilaterally is advance judges. But the party was unable to approve contentious nominees with Feinstein out, given that she sits on the Judiciary Committee, which Democrats control by one vote.
Votes have resumed now that she’s returned, but an exchange in recent days, along with multiple news reports, reignited growing concerns about Feinstein. In a conversation with reporters at Slate and the Los Angeles Times, Feinstein was asked about her colleagues’ reactions since she’s been back. She appeared to respond by suggesting that she had not been absent.
“I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working,” she told them. Those remarks have bolstered worries established by past reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and Politico, which featured sources speaking to Feinstein’s memory lapses and confusion on certain…
Read the full article here
