We periodically note the bursts of “news” stories in the mainstream media, always based on anonymous sources inside or “close” to the White House, dumping on Vice President Kamala Harris. These stories are very likely being instigated by people “close” to Biden—perhaps with his active approval—hoping to get her off the 2024 ticket. I expect the next burst of such stories to appear shortly before Biden formally announces his candidacy for re-election. One of his talking points will be that because Harris has decided to become UN Ambassador (that was LBJ’s way of clearing out Arthur Goldberg from the Supreme Court so LBJ could appoint his crony Abe Fortas) or some other glittering post, it is all the more necessary for him to head a new ticket for the sake of continuity.
In the meantime, attention this week is on forcing the immediate resignation of California’s ailing and senile Senator Dianne Feinstein, because her prolonged absence is holding up a lot of Senate business. Politico serves as the megaphone for this effort:
After Dianne Feinstein announced she’d contracted the shingles in early March, her staff said she planned to return to the Senate within a matter of weeks. But multiple Democrats close to her, as well as top-ranking congressional aides, are growing increasingly concerned that she may never come back to Washington at all. . .
Three people who have visited with the senator in recent weeks or been briefed on her status say her diagnosis appears to have taken a heavy toll on her. . . pressure has mounted on Feinstein from some fellow Democrats to end her storied career on her own terms.
“Pressure” by whom? Is “pressure” an impersonal force, like the invisible ether of outer space, that acts entirely on its own without visible human agency? Once again we get only sources “close” to the matter, or three unnamed “people.” Those are telltale marks of a planted hit job. Meanwhile, Feinstein’s “own terms” most emphatically include not resigning, but asking that she be “temporarily” replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee so that Biden’s judicial nominees can be passed out of the committee and on to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
This will present a test for Republicans, as Politico explains:
In order to replace Feinstein on the committee, Democrats could either pass a resolution through a 60-vote threshold or seek unanimous consent, which would require the support of all voting Senators. It is expected that Schumer will pursue a unanimous consent request, according to a Senate Democratic aide.
I expect there will be several GOP Senators who will object, and then the question becomes whether McConnell can sustain a filibuster. Why should the GOP help Democrats grease the skids to approve more leftist federal judges by the narrowest of margins?
There’s one other wrinkle to the oust-Feinstein effort. Maybe this is a bank shot from Kamala Harris’s camp, because Feinstein’s forced retirement would strengthen Harris’s position? Would you really want to be the party that forced out two iconic women politicians from California?
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