Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an 'icon for women in politics,' dies at 90, source confirms

The woman was literally older than the Golden Gate Bridge

I was about to mock you for being hyperbolic but then looked it up. She was born a few months after construction started in 1933, and the bridge opened in 1937. So she was literally older than the bridge.

I don’t think she’s gonna give up her seat still

I don't think she had full control of her faculties near the end. Her handlers and power of attorney should have forced her to retire but they didn't.

Nancy Pelosi wants someone to replace her, Gavin Newsom wants someone else. Nancy Pelosi wanted her to stay in office until the next election.

It's all just a game to these kinds of people.

They didn't want to lose her seat on the judiciary committee. Even if they had to tell her how to vote.

Senators don't work that much. She had plenty of time with her family. She didn't retire because she made lots of money being a centrist senator in a safe seat with enough seniority to do whatever she wanted.

This won't impact the shutdown at all, since the House republicans want a shutdown.

Now Newsom will appoint a moderate black woman who will provide the optics without causing chaos. You might think that sounds cynical, but that's exactly what Newsom already promised to do.

Spend time with her family? Senators don't work as it is

Because of her senority, she was one of the leaders of the party. I agree these elderly politicians need to retire, but that means at best they get replaced by a freshman senator of the same party with no political power. It's the same reason why McConnell hasn't retired even though he can't finish a speech without zonking out and being whisked away by his handlers.

You mention family and smoother governance, but to some people their work connections are more important to them than their families and she could have thought that resigning would have been less smooth than trying to finish out the term.

Those things are possible, but I really think that her identity was being a senator and she didn't want to give that up.

Power. That's why.

Here's a video of her arguing with children about climate change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-VzZ45MwI

Remember that time she gave away a vital clues in the Richard Ramirez case and possibly extended his serial killing career?

I literally came back to this thread to post Jello's take!

We need a complete overhaul of our political party system.

Both parties decided that seniority = power, and if you'll always have more next year, it's never a good time to step aside.

With a "bonus" that younger generations never get the experience till they're also old as shit. The parties have no reason to change, because they're ran by the most senior people.

Parties have far too much influence considering they're not officially part of the government. And the current state of shit is why a lot of founding fathers were against them. I think Jefferson or Franklin wanted to explicitly forbade them

I think the reason why US went with officials can still "serve" even dead is to avoid political killings (or to avoid a loophole in "justice system", just like mitch mcconnell who is probably acting having a seizure on his live speeches to avoid heavy charges because he knows the fed knows he has a huge role with trump shenanigans annnnnd unfortunately, it is challenging to press charges against persons who has "mental" illness and stroke can be considered as one).

Her and RGB staying on too long, very iconic.

Can we get some of the clipart Style with the glossy glass rounded rectangle

Future President Elizabeth Warren

Mitt Romney's politics suck, but he did the right thing by announcing his retirement.

Dementia patients rarely admit they have dementia, even when they struggle to put a full sentence together. It's depressing to watch.

Watching my parents age, now into their 80s, they're only just now starting to admit that, maybe, they're not as smart, agile, and capable as ever. Chronic kidney disease, COPD, metastatic cancers.... No blatant signs of dementia, but it's a struggle to explain new concepts or devices to them. I think it's just hard for people who've been strong, independent people all their lives to accommodate a world in which they can't carry 25 pounds or deviate from habits engrained over 20 years. It's got to be even harder for a politician or oligarch surrounded by sycophants. Harder still when the brain loses its capacity for logic.

I know you didn't mean it to be funny but I got a chuckle at that image.

My dad always said Jimmy Carter was too good of a man to be president

I was trying to think, what legacy? The only policy I can ever recall is a bunch of failed gun control bills.

Diaper didn't get wet all day.

"idgaf, fuck you got mine"

Per congressional bylaws, the only one who can permanently destroy the phylactery is the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives, wielding the Mace of the Republic.

What a disgusting comment.

She was incoherent while "working" just a few weeks ago if that. The video was online.

Maybe she could have been an icon. But instead her legacy is that of a greedy asshole who made shady stock deals and held her political power far too long - to the detriment of her constituents.

I mean, Supreme Court appointments are for life, what RBG did was not at all unusual. Age is also not nearly as much of problem on the court, because the whole point of it is to be stable, not rotating constantly like Congress.

It's that she didn't retire during Obama's tenure when she could be safely replaced by someone other than a white male rapist that people generally criticized, not that she served on the court until death.

She's a dem in California. Her whole legacy isn't going to be erased because she refused to retire.

I assumed it would be a little like New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand? She was someone most New Yorkers had never heard of, but when Senator Hillary Clinton vacated the seat, Gillibrand was assigned to it by then-governor and thus has never, and will never, run in a competitive election.

apparently the leading bet for a replacement is only 77.

Then Kissinger

Then we'll get conspiracy theory woman or the dude who dates minors as minority leader as his replacement.

This one anyway.

There's Nancy Pelosi, there is a managed ETF that actively matches her investments. It's ticker is NANC

Let's not jump to conclusions. They could totally "Weekend at Bernie's" this for a while.

They're probably great considering she had nothing to do with them.

Bruh, her family was the ones who should have explained why she should retire over a decade ago...

I don't feel sorry for them at all, they're probably the only ones who could have talked sense into her

They will not approve committee assignments for her replacement leaving the judicial committee deadlocked and unable to confirm judges.

There will be a power vacuum on several committees in the Senate, and they probably have already written their editorials criticizing Newsom's choice as a replacement Senator, they are just waiting to fill in the name.

Well, just look at this thread.

Men die in office and they are fighters!

A woman dies in office and she's a removed.

Ginsburg was worse; Feinstein at least was doing this in a situation where if she did keel over, a Democratic governor would replace her with somebody whose politics were broadly similar to her own, but Ginsburg knew perfectly well that her replacement might undo everything she accomplished and she refused to retire despite that.