CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2023, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“HARD LEFT BEHIND RETIRE-FEINSTEIN
DRIVE”
Forget
about both sexism and ageism as prime forces behind the highly vocal movement
pressuring longtime Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to retire early from
the seat she has held since 1990.
Sure, these
factors are present in varying degrees. So is the fact that Feinstein has been absent from the Senate more than two
months this spring, recovering from a painfully severe case of shingles.
But the actual
root purpose of this months-long campaign is an effort by the relentlessly
uncompromising hard left of the California Democratic Party to take over a key
post it could not win at the ballot box.
This real prime mover became obvious in an
appeal the ultra-leftist California Courage Campaign emailed to all its members
early this month, seeking to galvanize them against Feinstein.
That was because so-called
“progressives” have long felt the moderate Feinstein deprived them of her seat
when last reelected in 2018.
The hard left is dominant among this
state’s Democrats because no other interest has lately turned out significant
numbers for the 80 Assembly district caucuses where delegates to the party’s
state conventions are chosen.
Back in 2018, ultra-leftist delegates
led the party not to endorse Feinstein for a fifth full term, which she is about
18 months from finishing. Instead, they backed former Assembly Speaker Kevin de
Leon. He’s best known these days for his role in a secretly recorded racist
conversation last fall with then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury
Martinez, then-Councilman Gil Cedillo and then-local labor federation chief Ron
Herrera.
De Leon, unlike all others on the
notorious tape, refuses to resign his prominent post, a high-paying city
council seat he won after Feinstein beat him soundly. He insists he will serve
out his term before leaving.
De Leon, shown by the audio to at least
condone overt racism, was bitterly ageist in his run against Feinstein. He
claimed her age (now 89) made her unfit for the job years before anyone noticed
any problems with her health, physical or cognitive.
Despite the party endorsing against her
in both the primary and the general elections that year, voters twice gave
Feinstein huge margins.
That thwarted leftist ambitions to take
over her seat as they strive for full political control of California.
Now the left wants shingles to award it
via an appointment what it could not win at the polls. Leftists for two years
have ripped Feinstein for supposed mental lapses and for having friendly
exchanges with – gasp! – Republican senators.
More recently, they accused her of
letting her shingles-induced absence hold up confirmation of dozens of
President Biden’s judicial appointees.
Days before a tentatively scheduled
mid-May return to the Capitol, Feinstein shot back in a press release that “The
Senate continues to swiftly confirm highly qualified individuals to
the…judiciary, including seven…this week.”
She noted eight judges were confirmed
during her absence, while Republicans are holding up only “a few.”
With just a one-vote Judiciary Committee
majority, Democrats need Feinstein’s vote to send those nominees to the Senate
floor for final confirmation.
Who are the folks most active in trying
to oust Feinstein, presumably in favor of the ultra-liberal Oakland Congresswoman
Barbara Lee, who might be appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom if Feinstein leaves?
That could happen because Newsom promised two years ago he would name a Black
woman to the next Senate vacancy, and the African-American Lee wants the job so
badly she's already running against the far-better-funded Rep. Adam Schiff of
Burbank and Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine.
A quick Feinstein departure could give
her seat to Lee for more than a year, allowing her to campaign as an incumbent.
The Courage Campaign lists just one
Californian among the most prominent leftists attacking Feinstein: Silicon
Valley Rep. Ro Khanna, by odd coincidence Lee’s campaign co-chair. Others
include most of the congressional “squad:” Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
These, with Lee, are among the least compromising leftists in the current
House.
Which means this is at root not about
age or inability or absenteeism; it’s about ideology, just like it was in 2018,
when the leftists lost badly.
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