On Thursday, The New Yorker published an article explaining that Dianne Feinstein is a senile relic who needs to leave the Senate.  It was brutal and shows how determined leftists are to ditch Feinstein.  As tweets about the article show, Feinstein must be punished for allowing Amy Coney Barrett to ascend to the Supreme Court and for old-fashioned liberal tendencies.

At 87, Feinstein, who recently agreed to step down from the Senate Judiciary Committee, is one of the Senate's oldest and longest-serving members.  Although in the minority, she has significant power in a chamber that still respects tradition and seniority.

Leftists, though, measure Feinstein by her failure to humiliate Amy Coney Barrett.  They rewarded Feinstein with re-election in 2018 when she turned the Kavanaugh nomination into a grotesque three-ring circus by springing Christine Blowsy-Fraud's lies at the last minute.

For Barrett's hearing, though, Feinstein may have been worried that she had gone too far.  She was worried about dealing with Barrett because, in 2017, Feinstein attacked Barrett's faith, offending Catholics.  Therefore, Feinstein was polite to Barrett.  After the hearing, Feinstein was caught on camera hugging and speaking respectfully to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.):

Dianne Feinstein hugs Lindsey Graham to conclude the Barrett hearings. - https://t.co/kvvOe2Lutz via @shareaholic

— jamie (@gnuman1979) October 16, 2020

Did you catch that last line in the tweet, the one that said, "It's time for Dianne Feinstein to retire"?  For leftists, dignified hearings and collegiality are political death.

Feinstein's politicaldeath blow is a Jane Mayer hit piece in The New Yorker — "Dianne Feinstein's Missteps Raise a Painful Age Question among Senate Democrats."  The article relentlessly attacks Feinstein's mental acuity.

The opening anecdote, about Feinstein asking Jack Dorsey the same question twice, is compelling.  From that point on, though, Mayer relies almost entirely on anonymous statements about Feinstein:

Speaking on background, and with respect for her accomplished career, they say her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have. They describe Feinstein as forgetting what she has said and getting upset when she can't keep up. One aide to another senator described what he called a "Kabuki" meeting in which Feinstein's staff tried to steer her through a proposed piece of legislation that she protested was "just words" which "make no sense." Feinstein's staff has said that sometimes she seems herself, and other times unreachable. "The staff is in such a bad position," a former Senate aide who still has business in Congress said. "They have to defend her and make her seem normal."

[snip]

The former Senate staffer who still works with Congress declared, "It's been a disaster." As the ranking Democrat, Feinstein ordinarily would be expected to run the Party's strategy on issues of major national importance, including judicial nominations. Instead, the committee has been hamstrung and disorganized. "Other members were constantly trying to go around her because, as chair, she didn't want to do anything, and she also didn't want them doing anything," the former Senate staffer said. A current aide to a different Democratic senator observed sadly, "She's an incredibly effective human being, but there's definitely been deterioration in the last year. She's in a very different mode now."

If the leftist media had been this honest about Biden's visible decline, Biden would still be in his basement, instead of doddering around as "president-elect."

Assuming she really is senile, Democrats could have covered for Feinstein as they did for a year with Biden.  However, the parties' hardcore leftists want her out:

This is a sad read, but Feinstein needs to graciously retire for the sake of the country. https://t.co/5CJo5cMzLY via @NewYorker

— Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) December 10, 2020

Feinstein is too conservative to rep California, she chastised activist kids for wanting to save the planet, she botched the ACB hearing and now there’s this. CA has a deep bench of awesome Dems (Porter, Bass, Khanna, Lee, etc.) who are ready to step up. Time for her to retire. https://t.co/zY6C1NZP0E

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) December 10, 2020

Crucial reporting from @JaneMayerNYer.
It's time for Sen. Feinstein to retire. She did some great work in Senate. But it's been clear for last few years that her cognitive decline is serious.
Let Gov. Newsom appoint someone who can fully represent CA's interests until election. https://t.co/z0akATcA2j

— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) December 10, 2020

With Feinstein gone, California's Governor Newsom can nominate a senator who will make AOC and her squad look like refined Republicans.  Then President Harris (we know that's where all this is going) will not have to work with an old-fashioned political leader who still sort of likes America and the Constitution.

Image: Dianne Feinstein. Rumble screen grab.