I laughed.
Inappropriately.
She cast a vote late Thursday morning in the senate.
As a Californian, I’m sad. I can replay her announcing Milk and Moscone’s deaths in my head and still get teary-eyed. And it’s been a big chunk of my life that our two senators have both been women. I still have to think for a second or two to remember Alex Padilla is now our other senator.
RIP, Ms. Feinstein.
Agreed, @carrps. I was a long-time Californian, and I always admired her. She did a lot of good.
I found it sad how many on this board and elsewhere jeered because she didn’t (in my opinion couldn’t) step down from her seat. If she had, she would have jeopardized Biden’s ability to continue to appoint judges, among other things.
She didn’t stay because she was having a great time. She stayed out of a sense of duty to the last.
RIP, Ms. Feinstein. You earned it.
No disagreement. But, I think those feelings are rooted in a fear of another RBG scenario, where somehow hanging-on to the very end means a big risk and a huge step backward, politically.
She could have retired at 80 and spent the last decade with friends and family while some other Democrat took the safe seat. She could have retired at 86. She rolled the dice and lost and while she’s not around to hear it the rest of us who don’t have any memories of Feinstein as a meaningful or effective politician (and even those that do and are unhappy with her actions) are free to dispute the hagiography.
The disdain was that she ran for that last term in the first place. It was a guaranteed win for whomever would have been the eventual nominee.
Yeah it’s interesting in retrospect, because Milk and Feinstein very much detested each other. Locally they were opponents (a lot of the more progressive elements in SF despised her), even if they were on “the same side” in a broader political context.
But I do genuinely think Milk’s death had a very big impact on Feinstein’s psyche - her lifelong advocacy for gun control really took off with that traumatic event. She was a broadly admirable, but very complex person. Politico just put out a piece talking about her somewhat complicated legacy as a person who was a somewhat “infuriating” gay ally. She was a straight-laced, authoritarian prude as a mayor - but also an important early ally for the broader gay rights struggle.
It was a guaranteed Democratic seat even if she lost the general election. It’s not like Democratic voters had no choice but to re-elect an elderly incumbent.
Hey I voted for de Leon but yeah.
She voted against DOMA which was admirable. She also was a big proponent of keeping cannibus illegal which was evil.
I voted for Feinstein in 2018. In hindsight probably the wrong decision, but at that time she was at the top of her game. Can you imagine de Leon convincing Murkowski or Collins to defy Trump?
Note that California has “jungle” primaries, where the state as a whole advances the top two candidates to the general election. There are no nominees, only candidates and endorsees.
Correct. Thank you
i still think California would fo been better off if shed of beaten Wilson and was governor before she moved up
I mentioned in the other thread: at a certain point it was no longer a matter of just Feinstein the person. There was a whole Feinstein Political Apparatus from ward clerks to Senate senior staff to SuperPAC donors that had developed over 5 decades in California and DC. This would be a rather powerful force and the idea of it then being scattered about once Feinstein herself was not in the game, would have had a whole lot of weight in decisions.
In that picture you cite, had the woman on the left been male, that would certainly have looked like a sexual harassment situation. She sort of has the woman on the right backed into an alcove and that left hand against the wall is clear trapping behavior.
Which says nothing about the merits of whatever was being discussed, nor of Elmer’s decision to vote, but this posture was just striking to me.
I noticed the same thing. Rather aggressive posture.
Eh, LBJ did that to dudes all the time. Ways of the Old Senate.
It does kinda look like Murkowski is being shaken down for her lunch money. This was during the Kavanaugh hearings just before Murkowski broke with her party and voted against confirmation.
Agreed w all just above that it’s kinda typical power-people doing power-trip things to each other.
What stood out to me was the thought that two guys or two gals doing that is OK-ish. One of each would be viewed today as a very different situation.