Good news from the nation’s capital! Dianne Feinstein is alive!
After finding political trouble with conciliatory rhetoric towards, President Trump, she threw a few punches at the president and his party this week. It actually felt like she represented the California of 2018.
She took a break from deadening, behind-the-scenes pursuit of meaningless compromise to release testimony from a Fusion GPS co-founder (the company that commissioned the famous dossier on Trump and the Russians)—thereby infuriating Republicans who had been lying about that testimony for months.
Even better for Feinstein, Trump did her the honor of going after her on Twitter, and even giving her a nickname, “Sneaky Dianne Feinstein.” He called her release of the testimony “underhanded and possibly illegal.”
That inspired House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi to offer her own proof of life, Tweeting:”Congratulations to California’s own @SenFeinstein on officially earning her own @realDonaldTrump nickname. Clearly doing something right!”
There’s no better endorsement Feinstein could gain in her contest with challenger Kevin de Leon than the hatred of Trump. You can bet de León is giving his own campaign staff—admittedly a small group given the effort’s slow start–a hard time. After all his anti-Trump work, why can’t he get a Trumpian nickname of his own?
Feinstein also took advantage of a televised meeting with the President and leading Republicans and Democrats on immigration. The California senator—sneakily—suggested to the president that he agree to first doing a clean bill to legalize immigrants protected by the DACA order, and then move onto “comprehensive immigration reform” that would include the president’s security concerns.
Trump, who is utterly clueless about legislative details and the country he purports to lead, immediately embraced Feinstein’s suggestion. He did this even though it reversed, and thus undermined his current strategy of demanding Democrats pay a price – by supporting expensive and worthless security measures like the border wall –for winning DACA support.
A deal might have been had, but House Majority Leader and Traitor to California Kevin McCarthy, interrupted to remind Trump of his strategy.
Feinstein then didn’t help matters by making reference to a previous bipartisan effort on immigration reform in which she participated. The fact that the effort failed – Feinstein is the Senate’s most experienced practitioner of failed bipartisan negotiations – undermined her case.
But in saying that, I’m just quibbling over details. The great news is that Dianne Feinstein has a pulse.
It’s also nice to be reminded of the value of democracy: electoral competition, it seems, makes you feel younger.