Archive for January 29, 2023

If Dianne Feinstein is suffering from cognitive decline and is unfit to serve, then why she still a senator?

Posted: January 29, 2023 by John Ruberry in congress, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feinstein official Senate photo, retrieved from her website on January 29, 2023

By John Ruberry

Nearly overlooked earlier this month because of the drawn-out vote for speaker of the House was the breaking of seven decades of precedent in the upper chamber of Congress in the election for largely ceremonial post of president pro tempore of the Senate. Largely ceremonial only up to a point, that is. The holder of that position is third-in-line in presidential succession. Every president pro tempore elected since 1949 had been the longest-serving senator from the majority party. The dean of the Senate is 89-year-old Dianne Feinstein, she has been representing California since 1992. But Patty Murray of Washington, who is a relatively spry 72, was elected president pro tempore, which ups her salary a bit and earns her a security detail.

Feinstein reportedly declined to run for president pro tempore.

Concerns about Feinstein’s mental acuity go back to 2020, when she praised then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsay Graham (R-SC) when the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett concluded. “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” she told Graham before hugging him, “I want to thank you for your fairness.” 

Personally, I think Graham did a decent job during those hearings, but Feinstein overlooked–or should I say she couldn’t remember–that during the Donald Trump presidency it was the duty, in the eyes of the Democrats’ hard-left base, for every Democratic member of Congress to RESIST Trump and the Republicans.

Shortly afterwards, Feinstein stepped down as the ranking Democrat of the Judiciary Committee.

Last spring, her hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, spoke to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as ex-Feinstein staffers, about her mental state. And all of them, anonymously, told the Chronicle that because of memory issues, Feinstein appears unable to serve as senator.

More bluntly, in my words, it looks like Feinstein can’t do her job.

“I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone,” a California House Dem admitted to the Chronicle about Feinstein. “She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that.” 

The same article offered up this damning quote, “There’s a joke on the Hill, we’ve got a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein’s office,” a former staffer said.

Last year the New York Times described an experience that will be familiar to anyone who has witnessed a friend or relative suffering from cognitive decline.

One Democratic lawmaker who had an extended encounter with Ms. Feinstein in February said in an interview that the experience was akin to acting as a caregiver for a person in need of constant assistance. The lawmaker recalled having to reintroduce themself to the senator multiple times, helping her locate her purse repeatedly and answering the same set of basic, small-talk questions over and over again.

Tellingly, a visit to Feinstein’s Senate website offers up a photo of her that appears to be a couple of decades old. That’s the pic you see in this entry. Click here for a more recent photograph.

This month, two Democratic southern California members of the House, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, announced they are running for Feinstein’s seat–her term expires in 2025. Schiff, who repeatedly lied about having evidence proving Trump-Russia collusion, claims he informed Feinstein of his intentions. Believe that if you want to. 

Other candidates are expected to declare their candidacy. Feinstein hasn’t said anything yet, but she’s expected to announce that she will not be running for reelection. 

Clearly, Feinstein should have resigned for health reasons at least three years ago. 

One way to minimize the chances of having senators–and House members–suffering from cognitive decline is to enact congressional term limits, even though that may mean amending the Constitution. Besides, serving in Congress should be a highlight of someone’s career–not the entire career.

Feinstein’s sad situation is not unique in Washington. Two Republicans who served with Feinstein, Strom Thurmond, who ended his 48 years in the Senate at 100, and Thad Cochran, who resigned after 39 years in the Senate, suffered cognitive challenges late in their careers, as well as one Democrat, Robert Byrd–he died in office when he was 92.

For five months in 2001, at the age of 98, Thurmond was president pro tempore. And when Byrd died, he was president pro tempore of the Senate. Hey, hats off to the Democrats for bucking tradition by electing Murray over Feinstein for that post.

Besides congressional term limits, America also needs smarter voters. Although by all accounts Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a healthy 89-year-old man. Last year he was just elected to his eighth term. Grassley is a former president pro-tempore.

Having wiser and less selfish members of Congress is probably too much to hope for.

Mental issues can burden younger persons too.

In Pennsylvania, 53-year-old Democrat John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke last year, successfully ran out the clock in his successful Senate election, despite speaking struggles in his few public appearances and a disastrous debate performance. 

Joe Biden turned 80 last year and he’s expected to run for reelection. Biden has had many mental miscues in his two years at president. But that’s a problem well worth another discussion.

Please don’t call me ageist. If heart ailments, cancer, accidents, or infectious diseases don’t conquer me first, I am certain that one day I will suffer from cognitive issues. 

UPDATE February 14: Today Feinstein announced that she won’t seek reelection. Call me ableist, agist, or whatever. But Feinstein should have quit at least two years ago. She can still resign.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Solid Advice, Where’s Ali and Stacy for that Matter? Reaping what they sow, Let’s Make a Deal and the Joys of a Good Book Under the Fedora

Posted: January 29, 2023 by datechguy in abortion, crime, culture, nfl, opinion/news, Sports, tech, Uncomfortable Truths, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Robert Stacy McCain in noting the race hustle that is going on in Memphis give a piece of solid advice to those who are elevated to sainthood after death only without an examination of their lives to discover “heroic virtue” as the church does:

Don’t resist arrest in Memphis

Just once I’d like to the see the parents in one of these cases say: “I loved my son but he was a thug who got what he deserved.” That kind of declaration would save lives, but doesn’t generate generational wealth.

Speaking of Stacy it’s been many weeks since Elon Musk stated that conservatives who had been banned by the previous regime would be restored but there is still no sign of the @RSMCCAIN account on twitter that used to have 80K+ followers, me among them, however I notice that Ali Alexander has been suspended again. I have no idea what his underlying “offense” was but from what’s being reported the twitter code is practically designed to suspend people on its own.

It’s a great reminder of the wisdom of the start of Psalm 146:3-4

Put no trust in princes,

in children of Adam powerless to save.


Who breathing his last, returns to the earth;

that day all his planning comes to nothing

These type of problems have to be solved by ourselves

I used to feel bad for people in Minnesota for the type of government they managed to get saddled with. I had always presumed that they were sensible midwest folk who had just let the left get too strong a foothold in cities.

And then I see thigs like this:

The Minnesota Senate today passed a bill to enshrine in Minnesota law a right to abortion without limits at any time during pregnancy. Senators approved the bill, H.F. 1, by just a one-vote margin, 34-33. Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign the sweeping measure into law.

Abortion to the day before delivery? No problem in Minnesota!

It’s news like this that makes me think that Minneapolis voters are reaping what they have sown from their worship of St. George of the fentanyl, after all why should the parent who vote to allow the murder of their kids even to the day before their birth be safe on the streets?

The Cry is “racism” as the Carolina Panthers hired Frank Reich, an experienced coach with a long record for the open job rather than elevate the interim coach of color who had played .500 ball with a .500 team as the man in charge.

Wigdor LLP, the New York City-based law firm that represents Wilks in his discrimination suit against the NFL, was “disturbed” by the Panthers’ hiring process.

“We are shocked and disturbed that after the incredible job Coach Wilks did as the interim coach, including bringing the team back into playoff contention and garnering the support of players and fans, that he was passed over for the head coach position by David Tepper,” the firm said in a statement.

I’ll make a deal with Wigdor LLP. I’ll start worrying about the supposed underrepresentation of blacks among NFL head coaches (10% of the league when blacks represent 11% of the population of the nation) when the NFL address the overrepresentation of blacks among those who play the game making six to eight figure paychecks annually (70% of the players when blacks represent 11% of the country).

Sooner or later an undrafted or released player will sue on those ground claiming “racism” and the fun will begin.

Finally as my wife has been picking up extra days at work to supplement her gardening budget for 2023 I have rediscovered the joys of going to a restaurant with a good book and slowly enjoying a meal while I read.

This week it was Commodore Hornblower by CS Forester I had a first edition sitting on my shelf but a book is not meant to sit on a shelf it’s meant to be read.

It’s amazing how relaxing such a thing can be and it’s a rather large contrast to all the cell phones around me.

Who ever thought reading a good book would be such a radical act?