Aging California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s health is declining.
It’s unfortunate but true, and it’s sad to see her continue on in her diminished capacity as a U.S. Senator.
Now, Feinstein’s daughter says that the California senator is the victim of a crime.
Ronald Reagan once joked that the reason he never met with Mikhail Gorbachev’s predecessors in the Soviet Union was “because they kept dying on me.”
Forty years later, the joke is on us.
Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer are a combined 233 years old.
Our political leadership can best be described as a gerontocracy and unfortunately, with age comes age-related problems.
This is no more apparent than when it comes to some of our elected leaders in the U.S. Senate.
California’s 90-year-old Democrat senator is the victim of elder abuse.
At least, that’s what’s being claimed by her daughter.
Scamming the elderly?
Diane and Katherine Feinstein have accused co-trustees of the estate of Dianne Feinstein’s late husband Richard Blum of elder and financial abuse, as well as a breach of trust.
Michael Klein and Marc Scholvinck are alleged to have withheld distributions from the trust that should have gone toward Dianne Feinstein’s own trust fund.
But their lawyers disagree.
Attorney Steven Braccini said, “[Klein and Scholvinck] have acted ethically and appropriately at all times; the same cannot be said for Katherine Feinstein. This filing is unconscionable. The trustees have always respected Senator Feinstein and always will. But this has nothing to do with her needs and everything to do with her daughter’s avarice.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein alleges the trustees of her late husband’s estate committed financial elder abuse in new lawsuit https://t.co/2Iwm1dt4Ir
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 15, 2023
Feinstein’s declining health has been the subject of controversy for some time.
When she arrived in the Senate in May she was deemed visibly disoriented and confused and allegedly asked, “Where am I going?”
That incident followed her two-month leave of absence from her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee during which she received treatment after a shingles diagnosis.
Hillary Clinton: Take one for the team, until you can’t anymore
Some Democrats have balked at calling for the aging official to resign.
Hillary Clinton, ever the political bean counter said, “Here’s the dilemma: The Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires. I want you to think about how crummy that is. So I don’t know what’s in her heart about whether she really would or wouldn’t, but right now, she can’t. Because if we’re going to get judges confirmed, which is one of the most important continuing obligations that we have, then we cannot afford to have her seat vacant.”
Feinstein missed 91 votes on the Senate floor this Spring relating to confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
After she returned to work, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee began again approving Biden nominees, some of whom passed on a party-line vote.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.
