Originally published at: Senator Feinstein contradicts her office on the whole not running for re-election thing | Boing Boing
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This is just getting terribly sad. I’m sure they probably did run the announcement by her before releasing it, but even if they went behind her back it would mean her own staff thinks it’s time for her to step down.
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I appreciate Senator Feinstein’s years of service, but she should just resign now. Governor Newsom can appoint somebody suitable – ideally Katie Porter.
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This is painfully reminiscent of a family member who agreed they wouldn’t drive any more, and then weeks later, forgot that they’d ever agreed to such a thing.
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“Oh, no, I’m not announcing anything. I will one day,” Feinstein said, “today, tomorrow, earlier today, yesterday: you know, one day.”
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Anyone who’s had a family member with dementia will find this situation depressingly familiar. All the more so if the person lived a life of accomplishment as Sen. Feinstein did.
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Does Feinstein have a diagnosis? I thought it is verboten to speculate about someone’s mental state on bb?
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She can run again if she wants and is able to, but with Schiff and Porter already vying for the spot, she’s not going to win this time.
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It’s pretty much an open secret at this point. Staffers and Senate colleagues have discussed her memory issues on background in the NYT and WaPo.
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At the risk of running afoul of the bbs rules, I will just leave this here. It’s got some qualifiers / semi-retractions, but fwiw:
see also: https://archive.ph/91OWd
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Also, the situation (a loved one not remembering something pretty important) would be familiar to anyone dealing with a loved one with memory loss for any reason - whether or not Feinstein has any particular condition
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Term limits. I for one am getting really tired of old gray haired out of touch folks running this country.
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Okay, this is just getting really sad and embarrassing. I’m a very longtime CA resident and have voted for Feinstein, but only because she was running against fascist dipshits. I suspected she had some form of dementia maybe 7 years ago. Now I’m long past convinced, and I like the idea of her stepping down ASAP and Newsom appointing Katie Porter in her stead.
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I can’t even imagine her staff would have released this without significant consultation with her. Which means she either forgot she had come to that decision, or - at best - she forgot they were releasing the statement about her decision.
Ooof, yeah. I know someone who has developed increasingly severe memory problems, and it was with great relief to everyone when she finally acknowledged the issue and was open to receiving help. Of course, when it came time to get into the specifics of the help she’d need, she had completely forgotten the previous discussions, much less her acknowledgment. To make matters worse, if anyone broaches the issue, she takes it as a personal insult and refuses to talk to them anymore, so everyone’s relying on her coming to that acknowledgement on her own again.
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Oh, let me guess: then she forgets why she’s not talking to someone, just that she’s angry with them, so she (unconsciously) backfills some bullshit reason why she must be angry with them whenever the subject is raised. Then, one day, she forgets that she’s angry with them, and wonders why they aren’t talking to her.
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Ironically she often remembers that they were somehow (from her perspective) impugning her mental faculties, but she ends up fabricating the conversations that stick with her. She started telling stories about how “X started rudely insisting that I had dementia just because it had slipped my mind I had promised her something” and it was like, “Huh, that really doesn’t sound like X at all…” Only slowly did it become clear, as similar stories piled up, that the specific conversations she was “remembering” were, at best, gross misrepresentations of someone tactfully expressing some concern about her health.
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Whether we’re talking about local bbs rules or the “Goldwater rule”, I’d point out that it’s not speculation to observe that someone frequently forgets stuff or doesn’t know where they are. Her medical condition is no one’s business but its consequences are everyone’s.
Also it’s a terrible idea to think anyone is owed a powerful elected role. If you want to be nice to Dianne Feinstein, you can offer to drive her to her bridge game, and meanwhile choose a senator based on merciless standards of mental acuity.
NB. The Democratic party (unlike the Republicans) gives out Senate commitee positions based on seniority, which seems calculated to exacerbate the problem.
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