Politico seems very desperate to remove Dianne Feinstein from the U.S. Senate. How desperate? Desperate enough to suggest a constitutional amendment to remove elected officials whose health stands in the way of advancing the liberal agenda.
On Wednesday, former Politico health editor Joanne Kenen on Wednesday in "‘You Can’t Hide Things’: Feinstein, Old Age and Removing Senators." Kenen is now with the Commonwealth Fund, a leftist health-care foundation.
Even though a constitutional amendment would take years to enact, it is a mark of desperation that such a tactic is being considered even though it couldn't affect Feinstein. This is illustrated in the subtitle of the story: "Is it time for a constitutional amendment to oust incapacitated lawmakers?"
This unrealistic solution is also repeated in the body of the story:
Under the 25th Amendment, a president can be relieved of their powers if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet determine the president is unable to fulfil the duties of the office. Could something similar be established for lawmakers?
The desperation to remove Feinstein from the Senate is so great that Kenen doesn't even attempt to hide the ulterior motive for Democrats wanting to do so:
But what’s really driving the unusually public scrutiny of Feinstein’s health now is that she serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee at a particularly fraught moment. That’s the committee that decides whether President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees go to the floor for vote. It’s also the committee that would initiate any investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas amid questions of his compliance with court ethics and disclosure practices.
Without Feinstein, the Democrats don’t have a majority on the committee to carry out their agenda — and the last thing the Republicans are going to cooperate on right now is the nation’s courts. The GOP nixed Feinstein’s request to allow a fellow Democrat to temporarily take her spot on the committee. That boxed the Democrats in. No Di-Fi, no judges.
If an ailing Republican senator's health were a roadblock in the way of enacting a conservative agenda, what would have been the chances of Kenen being concerned about how to remove such a senator? Somewhere between nil and none?
Finally, Kenen assures the Politico readers that if Feinstein were removed from the Senate, she would be safely replaced by another Democrat.
Politics, of course, can also play a role. A party leader may be less likely to urge someone to retire if the governor would appoint someone from the other party to fill the seat, or if voters in a special election would likely vote for the other side.
That’s not a question in heavily Democratic California, where the Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint a senator to serve until the next election.
