A trailblazer who survived beatings from her alcoholic mother to become a giant for women in politics: Dianne Feinstein - from single mom at 26 to San Francisco's first female mayor and three decades in Congress
Feinstein was born in 1933 and has held her seat in the Senate for nearly 31 years. The former San Francisco mayor was long a powerhouse of Democratic politics
By Morgan Phillips
Daily Mail
Sep 29, 2023
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein turned 90 years old in June - a birthday that made her one of only five senators ever to serve in the upper chamber as a nonagenarian
Dianne Feinstein, the nation's oldest senator and a longtime liberal powerhouse, passed away at 90 Thursday night after over 30 decades in the upper chamber.
She voted Thursday morning but missed afternoon votes before passing at her Washington, D.C. home. Her final vote was a procedural motion to advance FAA reauthorization.
The California Democrat turned 90 in June - a birthday that made her one of only five senators ever to serve in the Senate as a nonagenarian.
Feinstein was born in 1933 and held her Senate seat for nearly 31 years - despite battling a series of ailments that inhibited her ability to do the job.
The former San Francisco mayor was long a bastion of Democratic politics - previously chairing the high-profile Senate Rules and Intelligence committees and authoring the 1994 assault weapons ban.
But her reputation began to sour as the ailing senator clung to power despite plain-as-day cognitive decline and a two-and-a-half month illness absence that led to a backlog of judge confirmations through the Judiciary Committee.
With the death of Alaska Rep. Don Young, Feinstein became the oldest member of U.S. Congress in March 2021. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is only months behind - he will turn 90 on September 17.
According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times report Feinstein describes her childhood as 'very brutal' and said that her alcoholic mother frequently beat her and her sister.
Nevertheless she became San Francisco's first female and Jewish mayor in 1978 at 45, after the city's former mayor George Moscone was assassinated, along with city supervisor Harvey Milk.
As president of the county Board of Supervisors at the time, she was in City Hall at the time of the assassinations and was the one who discovered Milk dead in his office. Feinstein then announced their deaths at a press conference in words that reverberated around the country.
She held the mayoral seat for a decade before launching a campaign her governor.
Feinstein married her first husband Jack Berman in 1956 and was left a single mother to daughter Katherine three years later at 26. In 1962, she married Bertram Feinstein, who died of colon cancer in 1978. Two years later, she married San Francisco investment banker Richard Blum.
Billionaire Blum was Feinstein's third husband and she never quite seemed to recover from his passing in 2022.
Blum and Feinstein married while she was still serving as San Francisco mayor and became a power couple in the city. Both were wealthy - Feinstein had family money and Blum a self-made banker.
After her failed campaign for governor in 1990, she was appointed to the Senate seat in 1992.
Feinstein, D-Calif., left, and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., are seen after a group photo to mark National Seersucker Day in the Ohio Clock Corridor of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, June 8, 2023
Senator Strom Thurmond during the Judiciary Committee hearing regarding Billy Carter's dealing with Libya, Washington DC, July 1980. Thurmond was the oldest senator ever, retiring at 100
Grassley is the Senate's second-oldest member
Feinstein is the fifth-oldest to ever serve in the Senate. Strom Thurmond, the segregationist Democrat-turned-Republican, was the oldest and longest-serving senator ever: he was 100 when he retired in January 2003 after 48 years in office.
And in addition to a slew of health battles in the final chapter of her life Feinstein faced a messy family legal battle.
She accused the trustees of her late husband's estate of financial elder abuse, asking they be removed from their position, and charging them with improperly financially enriching Richard Blum's three daughters.
The lawsuit was filed by Feinstein's daughter Katherine who had power of attorney for her. The three daughters from Richard Blum's previous marriage questioned why Feinstein could serve in the Senate but not file her own lawsuit.
Feinstein, meanwhile, alleges the Blum daughters were wrongly appointed and refused to pay the senator's disbursements or reimburse her medical bills.
In the latest filing, the trustees place Feinstein's own net worth at $50 million and say she has over $1 million in income per year from her late husband's trust and her salary.
A poll conducted over the summer by the University of California at Berkeley showed some two-thirds of California voters did not think the senator was fit for office.
The senator sparked confusion when she returned to the Senate after her extended absence earlier this year and appeared to forget she'd been gone.
'No, I've been here. I've been voting,' the then-89-year-old told reporters on May 16 when they asked how she was feeling and what her colleagues thought of her return. 'Please. You either know or don't know,' she added.
She had been out due to a bout with shingles that led to vision and balance impairments as well as facial paralysis known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome in addition to encephalitis, a brain infection.
Her office confirmed the diagnosis after the senator herself curiously told reporters she had had the flu. 'It was a really bad flu. I'm doing better thank you,' Feinstein said initially about her condition.
Still, the senator's work from her heyday drew widespread praise from both sides of the aisle.
'Sen Feinstein did an outstanding job representing the ppl of California. I worked closely w her as a member of the drug caucus& judiciary cmte. During the time I was chair& she was ranking Democrat we had a wonderful working relationship She’s a true public servant I’ll miss her,' Grassley, who served with Feinstein the entirety of her Senate career, wrote on X.
Feinstein had planned to retire in 2024 - three House Democrats have already lined up to try to replace her: Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Businessman Eric Early is running on the Republican side.
Feinstein holds a copy of a billboard to be placed in 20 locations throughout the City on January 20, 1983
Mayor Feinstein - then running for governor in 1990 - speaks on the phone
Feinstein uses a weight machine at her home in 1990
In May it also came to light that Nancy Corinne Prowda, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi's eldest daughter, has been acting as a caretaker of sorts to Feinstein, the Senate's oldest member.
Asked if the arrangement was to aid Schiff's campaign, Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett gave a curt 'no.'
Sources suggested to Politico that the arrangement was to ensure Feinstein, whose state of confusion and misremembering has been plainly on display in the Senate, remained in office to the end of her term.
Feinstein speaking on telephone in private box during NFL game between San Francisco 49ers & Seattle Seahawks; looking at aide
Swearing-in of Diane Feinstein at the Senate in 1992
Feinstein jogging looks far more full of life than in recent years
The 58-year-old marketing executive has appeared with the retiring senator after the departure of several trusted aides.
Pelosi has endorsed Schiff in the primary, and sources told Politico they believed the arrangement could be to prevent Gov. Gavin Newsom from appointing Lee to fill the seat.
Newsom has pledged to appoint a black woman to the Senate - though he's suggested he won't appoint anyone who is currently in the 2024 race for the seat.
A spokesman for Feinstein said Prowda was not drawing a salary for her role.
'Nancy Corinne and Senator Feinstein have been friends for decades. Nancy Corinne has been supporting her in her shingles recovery,' Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett explained in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'Speaker
Emerita Pelosi and Senator Feinstein have been friends since long
before their service in Congress — and their friendship is personal, not
political. Anyone who knows Senator Feinstein knows that her service in
the Senate is entirely her own decision, and Speaker Emerita Pelosi
would never suggest otherwise.'
1 comment:
I would have felt much better about her if she had hung it up five years ago. She had her personal affairs put under a conservatorship about two years back because she knew she was losing it, but continued to exercise her office as a United States Senator. Not impressive. She just couldn't let go.
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