Governor should promise to appoint a caretaker for the remainder of the senator’s term and she should step down
First elected in 1992, Dianne Feinstein, 89, is California’s longest-serving U.S. senator. She has been absent since February, when she was diagnosed with shingles.Gov. Gavin Newsom should pave the way so Dianne Feinstein can make a graceful exit from the U.S. Senate.
The stakes are too great for this stalemate to continue. With Democrats barely having the numbers to control the Senate, with President Biden’s judicial nominees stalled because of Feinstein’s absence from the deadlocked Judiciary Committee, and with a partisan fight over raising the debt-ceiling fast approaching, California needs full representation in the upper chamber of Congress.U.S. senator. For years there have been mounting questions about her declining mental acuity.
Feinstein issued a statement last week saying that her return to Washington had been delayed “due to continued complications related to my diagnosis” and asking that the Senate appoint a temporary replacement for her on the Judiciary Committee. Senate Republicans, some of whom would have to go along with a temporary replacement deal for it to pass, on Tuesday rejected that idea.
Feinstein has announced that she won’t seek reelection next year, and the primary election is less than a year away. But if she resigns before the end of her term, Newsom would pick someone to serve the remainder of the term.
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