Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has missed 60 of 82 votes taken this year, and her absence has prompted a whispering campaign suggesting she step down so that the Senate can confirm as many of Biden’s radical left judges as possible.
Feinstein has been home since March 7 after being hospitalized for a bout of shingles. The Senate, which has been in recess since March 31, is set to reconvene on April 17. At that time, the Judiciary Committee will take up several judicial nominations, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) believes that Feinstein’s absence will impede the Committee’s ability to vote the judges out.
“I can’t consider nominees in these circumstances, because a tie vote is a losing vote in committee,” Durbin told CNN. He continued, “We still have some nominees left on the calendar that we can work on… But we have more in the wings that we would like to process through the committee.”
Of the votes she has missed while ill, 25 were for judicial nominees — three of whom were appointed to California federal courts — and 13 were for executive branch nominees. All of those nominees advanced, but Feinstein’s absence impacts whether nominees are brought up for a committee vote. “We still have some nominees left on the calendar that we can work on. … But we have more in the wings that we would like to process through the committee,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told CNN.
The Senate has had a difficult time confirming nominees and passing legislation in recent months due to the extended absences of Feinstein, Sen. Fetterman — who was receiving treatment for depression — and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — who is recovering from a concussion. McConnell began missing votes March 9 and Fetterman began Feb. 15.
If necessary, Democrats will prop Feinstein up in her chair and tell her to vote “yay or nay” just to be able to stay in power. It’s clear that Feinstein has no business in the Senate.
Questions about Feinstein’s fitness to serve have followed her for years now, particularly since an unsettling moment in 2020 when she embraced Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and seemed supportive of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, prompting questions of whether she even knew what was going on. Shortly after, Feinstein was removed from her position as Chair of the Judiciary Committee—but a report from the time claimed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had to twice inform Feinstein of her removal because she forgot the first time. Last year, a separate San Francisco Chronicle report citing unnamed senators and Senate staffers claimed Feinstein’s memory was “rapidly deteriorating,” and that she’s “mentally unfit” to continue serving.
Come to think of it, if Democrats believe that Biden is fit to serve as president, why not pull a Weekend at Bernie’s stunt and drive the senator around in her car?
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