Last week, 89-year-old Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate after spending more than two months in California recovering from what her office said was a case of shingles. Feinstein’s cognitive capacity has been in noticeable decline in recent years, and this week, when Slate’s Jim Newell and the Los Angeles Times’ Benjamin Oreskes spoke to her in a Capitol hallway, she appeared not to remember that she’d just been absent:
“No, I haven’t been gone,” she said.
OK.
“You should follow the—I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.”
When asked whether she meant that she’d been working from home, she turned feisty.
“No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please. You either know or don’t know.”
While Feinstein has announced that she is not running for reelection in 2024, a number of observers and a few elected Democrats have suggested that she should resign now, if only because the party doesn’t have enough votes to pass judicial nominations through the Senate Judiciary Committee if she’s again unable to work. (Filling as many federal judgeships as possible has been a Democratic priority under Biden, particularly given the recent spate of aggressive rulings by conservative judges on issues like the “abortion pill” mifepristone.)
If Feinstein did resign, California Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint her temporary replacement. Newsom said in 2021 he would appoint a Black woman to the role; at the time, he was being criticized for appointing a man (Alex Padilla) to take the state’s other Senate seat over from a Black woman (Kamala Harris) when she became vice president. But, by general consensus, the Black woman in California who has most obviously earned the job is Oakland-area Rep. Barbara Lee, who has already announced that she is running to replace Feinstein full-time. So have Rep. Katie Porter and well-connected Los Angeles Rep. Adam Schiff, who has the support of even more well-connected ex-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Schiff’s chances of winning the seat would ostensibly suffer if Feinstein resigned now and Lee gained the advantage of incumbency in their race.
One way to prevent giving Lee this leg up would be for Newsom to announce or signal that he would appoint literally anyone else besides her (or Katie Porter or Adam Schiff) to Feinstein’s seat. Another would be to have Nancy Pelosi’s eldest daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda, follow Dianne Feinstein around all day in Congress helping her pretend to be able to fulfill her job duties. Politico reported Thursday that California Dems are going with the latter option:
Not only did Prowda escort Feinstein around Capitol Hill last week, she was again at her side yesterday, helping aides surround the senator in a Capitol hallway as a reporter tried to speak to her. Multiple people familiar with the arrangement say it’s only the most visible part of a quiet but critical role the Pelosi family has played in helping to take care of the ailing senator, both in Washington and San Francisco.
“Neither Feinstein’s nor Pelosi’s office responded to questions about whether Prowda is living with the senator, why she was chosen for the job, whether she is getting paid for her duties or whether she’s been encouraging Feinstein to remain in office,” the publication says, though both sides sought to emphasize that the two have known each other for decades and said that Prowda is simply supporting Feinstein in her recovery from shingles.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Feinstein was also diagnosed during her absence with encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, a condition which can cause permanent damage and which was not disclosed to the public by Feinstein’s office.
It’s quite a situation! I’m sure they’ll all figure out how to resolve it sensibly and with respect for the principles of democracy.
