Michael Goodwin: Democrats Do Dianne Feinstein Dirty, but Have Not Done the Same to Biden — Yet

Feinstein Under Fire: A Warning for Biden?

If you’re feeling deprived of irony, watch the spectacle of the vicious attacks on Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It’s a priceless example of the left eating its own and demonstrates how nasty it is — even when a fellow Democrat is on the menu. President Biden should also pay special attention.

A Dry Run for Biden?

The merciless effort to drive the ailing Feinstein out of office and into retirement could prove to be a dry run for a demand that an aged, declining Biden also get out of the way during a second term. Feinstein, 89, has been absent from the Senate since mid-February and was later diagnosed with shingles and hospitalized in California.

When she was released in early March, aides promised she would be back in Washington within weeks. Citing “complications,” they now offer no timetable for the return of Feinstein, who has been in the Senate for 30 years.

Original Sin

Shingles is not her only problem or even the biggest one to her tormentors. Her original sin was to praise and hug GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham in October of 2020 after the final Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The left reacted with wild outrage and calls for her to quit the committee came instantly from activists as well as from formerly sensible scholars Norman Ornstein and Harvard’s Laurence Tribe.

Feinstein Refuses to Quit

Despite the pressure and anonymous slurs, Feinstein refused to quit the committee, her only concession being a decision last February not to seek re-election in 2024. That briefly quieted the hunger for her head, but her continued absence has reignited calls for her to retire.

Relevance to Biden

This bitter, uncivil war is relevant to Biden, who could face a similar push if he prevails in next year’s election. Already there is wide speculation that his advancing age — he would turn 86 during a second term — and cognitive difficulties make it unlikely he could complete another full term.

A huge majority of voters — 68% in one poll — believe Biden is “too old for another term,” according to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey released in March. Among Dems, 48% agreed his age is a problem, while only 34% disagreed.

Media Bias

Naturally, the mainstream media eagerly jumped on the Biden bandwagon. The New York Times was quick out of the box with a kid-gloves news story on Harris and an especially weird column by Thomas Friedman on the same day.

The news story made scarce mention of the record turnover among unhappy Harris aides and steered clear of the ridicule of her word-salad speeches. Instead, it puffed her up as a trusted partner to Biden and a valuable campaigner and cited defenders who said — predictably — that criticism of her was sexist and racist.

In his loopy piece, Friedman urged Biden, apparently seriously, to put Harris in charge of the “transition to the age of artificial intelligence.” It would be fun to watch robots imitate her cackle. Then he called for the Dems to be re-elected in a landslide, saying it would be a rebuke to “Trumpism and the politics of division.”

Without a shred of irony, he ridiculed Trump voters as the ones who are “haters and dividers.” It’s going to be a long campaign. Enjoy it while we can.

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