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"Senator Dianne Feinstein, A Reason for Term Limits" Transcript:
David Bozell: Man, really kind of a weird story today out with all this Elon hullabaloo and Twitter, but the San Francisco Chronicle, straight out of California with this kind of a weird story about Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Now, she's 88 years old, and it basically makes the point that she's no longer with it. I mean, here's a woman who's confirming Supreme Court justices, voting on major policy, major spending bills, spending your money, 88 years old. She ran for reelection in 2018 when she was 85, which was an interesting decision given that California's basically blue. Presumably, they would've retained the seat, but she runs for reelection in 2018, at 85 years old, fast forward, four years, she's 88 years old.
San Francisco Chronicle has this piece, it says:
When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Senator Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they had had with her many times over the last 15 years. Instead, the lawmaker said they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours.
Sorry, I don't mean to laugh and I'm not an ageist by any stretch, but hey, term limits, right? Geez Louise!
It goes on, it says:
Rather than delve into policy, Feinstein, 88, repeated the same small talk questions like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district. The Member of Congress said with no apparent recognition that the two had already had a similar conversation. The episode was so unnerving that the lawmaker who spoke to the Chronicle on the condition asked that they not be identified.
Come on, have some stones.
But the episode was so unnerving that the lawmaker began raising questions with colleagues to see if some kind of intervention to persuade Feinstein to retire was possible. Her term runs through 2024. The conversation occurred several weeks before the death of her husband in February.
Yeah, her husband just died. Crazy.
This lawmaker goes on, whoever it is, quoted says:
She was an intellect and a political force not that long ago. That's why my encounter with her was so jarring because there was no such trace of that. Four U.S. Senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democrat Member of Congress told the Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work.
I mean, she represents 40 million people in California. 40 million people are up there without a Senator. I mean, I guess they've got a Senator In Name Only - SINO - is that how we're going to pronounce that one? But what does this mean for America? Not for ForAmerica. What does this mean for America?
It means - it kind of reminds me of Robert Byrd, the former KKK klansman, Grand Cyclops of the KKK. And he delivers a crucial vote for Obamacare in 2010. I'll play it in a second, and they basically, he was kind of out of it. He basically, they wheeled him in on a wheelchair to the top of the chamber. I think this was on Christmas Eve when Harry Reid just stuffed Obamacare down our throats, Christmas Eve, and they wheeled Robert Byrd in to take a, it may have been sort of the tie breaking vote to get it, or maybe the vote that had to cross the finish line. And he gets up there and it's really difficult to tell, but trust me, he's at the top of the chamber now. And then he says something about, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy, who had just died.
Present, but everyone has to turn and look up from the Senate floor, because they can't get him down in the wheelchair, down there to actually cast the vote. So, he is just in the back. But this might be what ends up happening with Dianne Feinstein now.
Taking crucial votes, making crucial policy decisions, but it appears by all accounts that Democrats don't really believe that she's there, all there. I mean, feel bad for her on some sense, but this is why you got to consider term limits as a viable deal here. These are major, major policy decisions being made by a woman who just lost her husband, all due respect. She's flying back and forth from California. And that's not an easy trip going back and forth from California.
But this is another reason, it gets into sort of my point about the Senate being rigged too. We've got senators who just aren't showing up for certain votes. You just get the sense that, McConnell, Schumer just have this game being played back and forth with one another. Okay, I'll give you this. I'll give you that. These are my must-haves. These are the things I can't deal with, or my caucus will destroy me.
And you've got a woman representing 40 million people in California, 88 years old. You've got a number of people going off the record, anonymously saying that she just doesn't have the goods anymore to do the job.
It's a shame, but it's a dangerous, dangerous situation for the country. When you've got one of a hundred people voting and she doesn't seem to be altogether there, according to her own colleagues.
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