CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017, OR THEREAFTER
EDITORS: TO ENSURE
TIMELINESS, DISREGARD EMBARGO DATE
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“AGE A BIG FACTOR AS YOUNGER DEMS CIRCLE FEINSTEIN”
They
see her as road-kill, the younger California Democrats hovering over longtime
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein this month just before and just after she
announced her bid for election to a sixth term.
“She
no longer reflects the experiences or core values of Californians…and she isn’t
willing to step up and lead on resisting (President) Trump…” went one endorsing
statement approved by state Senate President Kevin de Leon of Los Angeles, who
will be termed out of his current job next year. Would he OK anything similar
if Feinstein were 64, not 84?
The
relative youngsters (aged 60 and under) might be surprised
when Feinstein turns out to be as fierce as a mother bear whose
young have been threatened once her reelection campaign gets going. Her cubs:
the things she says still need doing – ending gun violence, combating climate
change and ensuring access to healthcare.
Feinstein
is anything but new to challenge. Once a little-known San Francisco supervisor,
she witnessed the 1978 City Hall assassinations of then-Mayor George Moscone
and fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights icon, by another supervisor,
Dan White.
Under
horrendous circumstances, Feinstein assumed the mayor’s office by virtue of
being the county board president. Her career in major office has lasted almost
40 years. She’s done it with achievement, from stabilizing the traumatized San
Francisco to sponsoring new women’s rights, championing environmental and gun
controls and crusading against government-sponsored torture.
Past
achievement apparently means little to de Leon and others in her party; earlier
this year, they almost handed its state chairmanship to a community organizer
from Richmond who’s done little to make the party the dominant force it is
today in California.
Feinstein,
those folks claim, is a “DINO,” Democrat in name only, the abbreviation itself
imitating Republicans who deride the few moderates in their own party as RINOs,
Republicans in name only.
“On
the big issues of our time, she’s been on the wrong side…,” griped Silicon
Valley Rep. Ro Khanna before Feinstein formally declared, failing to name a
single objectionable vote in her last two terms. Neither did de Leon.
Translation: Feinstein is too old for them. Khanna, of course, won his seat two
years ago largely by making and issue of the age (75) of veteran Rep. Mike
Honda.
The
younger Democrats forget Feinstein pioneered women’s rights, that she stood
almost alone against torture during the George W. Bush administration,
protected abortion rights and large swaths of the California desert with equal
fervor, while helping create several national monuments in the state. They
pooh-pooh her decades of steadfast fighting for gun control, saying she hasn’t
been tough enough. Plus they forget how strongly she’s fought climate change.
On
all those issues, Feinstein has been tough enough to get things done by working
with Republicans in the Senate, rather than so adamant that all GOP senators
would reject anything she says – as they now do with the far younger California
Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris. Harris, as it happens, quickly endorsed
Feinstein for reelection, just as Feinstein was one of her early 2016
endorsers. Harris also contradicted de Leon.
“Since
joining the Senate, I have found few better allies in our fight to stop the
radical agenda of Donald Trump than Dianne,” said Harris.
De
Leon began his campaign by blasting Feinstein for suggesting that given some
time, Trump might become reasonable. And after this month’s Las Vegas massacre,
he tore into her for being soft on gun control – at virtually the same moment
she introduced the first bill banning bump stocks like those used in that
attack.
Nor
does Feinstein’s record mollify potential candidate Tom Steyer, the billionaire
hedge fund mogul who is the national Democratic Party’s biggest donor and
founded the NextGen organization to combat climate change.
“It
is clear for all to see,” Steyer wrote a month after Feinstein’s August remarks
on Trump, “there is zero reason to believe he can be a good president.”
Chances
are Feinstein will match up next fall against one of those two, in the second
consecutive all-Democrat Senate runoff election, no major Republican having yet
stepped forward.
Then
California voters can decide if they want bombast or achievement, a loud voice
unlikely to get much done or someone who gets results even if she has some gray
hairs.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
No comments:
Post a Comment