The Truth About Attacks on Dianne Feinstein: She Must Stay Put

Dianne Feinstein, the night she won her 5th term, 2018.

By Colleen O’Connor

The Pope labeled yesterday, “The Easter of War” and “scandalous” they even exist in the midst of a pandemic.

Certainly, none as ugly, costly, insane and hard to comprehend as the Russian/ Ukraine war.

But, the domestic assaults on Senator Diane Feinstein rank right up there.  Starting with her hometown paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, calls for her to resign from her Senate seat have gone viral.

Seriously, what is the urgency to push DiFi to resign from her Senate seat?

And why is the Conservative Watercooler crowing, “Operation ‘Dump Feinstein’ Gains Steam?” Or the Politic pile on: “Bombshell report on Feinstein’s health rocks California.”

Only thing that “rocked” San Diego was Thursday evening’s 4.6 earthquake near Ensenada.

More importantly, who are the people complaining that the 88-year old Senator is “not up to the job,” “her memory is rapidly deteriorating,” and her “staff is doing much of the work to represent the nearly 40 million people of California”?

All anonymous sources!  “Four U.S Senators, three former staffers, and one Member of Congress.”

What cowards.  If you want to make serious accusations, “man up.”  Don’t crouch behind toxic spitballs from afar.

Yes, Feinstein is aging in a decidedly aged Senate.  And yes, she is doing less constituent work and less hard-charging legislative leading, but still managed to spearhead the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

“Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate,” Speaker Pelosi said.  Adding, it is “unconscionable that, just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades and after decades of outstanding leadership to our City and State, she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.”

And California’s junior Senator, Alex Padilla agreed, “I can tell you she is doing her job and doing it well.”

Perhaps, Pelosi and Padilla know what the “Operation Dump Feinstein” is really about.

Here is a hint.  Elections looming in 2022 and 2024.

Feinstein’s poll numbers are down.  Whose aren’t?

A March survey registered her at 36% approval; lower than Padilla’s at 39%.  He is up for election this year.  Feinstein not until 2024.

So, who, what, and why behind the urgency?

A possible covert war among billionaires?

Not just Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover bid to create his own alternate info-universe and possibly offer it to Trump in 2024, but a frontal attack by a competitor, raging against Tesla’s safety record just in time for the 2022 California Senate race

Dan O’Dowd, the Santa Barbara latest billionaire, who is self-funding a U.S. Senate campaign that may “inadvertently” take down freshman Senator Alex Padillo and end up costing the Democrats the Senate.

According to Politico, O’Dowd is running for office squarely as a means of bludgeoning the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk; his software competitor.

More ominous, at a minimum, an O’Dowd run could ”cause headaches for Democrats.”

O’Dowd has already filed to run; booked over half a million dollars in air time and promises significantly more. California election law allows for the top two primary finishers to advance to the November run-off; almost guaranteeing O’Dowd would face Padillo.

Why not just run the ads and leave the Senate race alone?  Two reasons, more amendment protections as a candidate for public office and significantly reduced air time costs for political ads.

See the danger?  Drag down Feinstein.  Overwhelm Padillo.  Who wins?

Feinstein, is more valuable to Democrats and the country than the vanity-earthquakes coming from more Billionaires’ Club antics.

“First elected female Board of Supervisors president in San Francisco, she helped usher the city through the 1978 assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone; serving as Mayor for a decade. In 1992, she and Barbara Boxer became the first women to represent California in the Senate.”

And has gotten more direct government funding for her state than nearly every other Democratic senator.

Feinstein’s good enough for Pelosi.  Good enough for me.

And “scandalous” doesn’t cover the cowardly, anonymous attacks on a heroic woman in mourning.

Feinstein must stay put.