Feinstein Faces Dem Censure After Backing Mukasey

[CatWoman]

One day after voting to elevate a divisive conservative judge to the federal appeals court in New Orleans, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was the president's guest aboard Air Force One. She had been invited to survey the damage from the recent spate of Southern California wildfires.

The senator later remarked privately that she found her conversation with Bush aboard Air Force One "illuminating," a source close to Feinstein told the Huffington Post.

Two weeks later, Feinstein was one of two Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee to vote to send Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the new attorney general to the full Senate. Her support helped turn the tide in favor of a nomination that faced an uncertain future after Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding was torture.

When the full Senate voted, Feinstein was one of only six Democrats to vote in favor of confirming Mukasey.

Now, a coalition of progressive Democrats upset with Feinstein's controversial votes will ask the California Democratic Party to censure her at its executive board meeting this weekend, the Huffington Post has learned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/12/feinstein-faces-dem-censu_n_72342.html

[lazyriver]

1. I hope they do it.

She is quickly turning into a bigger disappointment than Pelosi and is about to cross over into Lieberman territory.

[havocmom]

2. One would hope the good people of California would make her face unemployment too.

Wire taps are not for terrorist suspects, they are for INFORMATION that maintains POWER. Information turns pols into poodles pretty damned fast.

My guess, and it is just a guess: Feinstein probably got a quick view of the file on her and/or her husband while on that little plane ride.

[BadgerKid]

3. Which Dems are corruptable?

It's conceivable that wiretapping could have been used to find out which Dems would be corruptable. Hmmmm....

[The Stranger]

4. Hey, anyone who wants to censure DiFi MUST BE A FREEPER TROLL.

I tellya!

:sarcasm:

[riderinthestorm]

5. Schumer played a large a role - bigger actually since he recommended Mukasey

and he is getting censured too?!

...crickets....

Singling out Diane Feinstein as the sole baddie deflects some necessary spotlight from Schumer and that guy deserves censure and public flogging as well (not physical torture you freaks who always want to see literalism in analogy so put down the blowtorch).

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Hopefully the New York Dems will follow suit. The censure proposed for

Feinstein is for more than just Mulkasey.

It's also for the racist judge she voted to confirm to the Federal Bench, and for her support for immunity for telecoms who made millions taping Americans for the bush administration.

CA Dems are undertaking this becasue Feinstein is a CA Senator, right?

It's time for you to start calling up New York Dems and make sure Schumer gets an appropriate responce as well

...crickets...

[riderinthestorm]

9. Since I am not a part of the particular coalition going after Feinstein

I don't have a voice in whether they pressure NY Dems to go after Schumer. I certainly DID call Schumer's office before the vote went down and expressed my opinion. My two Dem senators (Durbin and Obama) already shared my views on Mukasey. As an Illinois resident, I would be happy to call any coalition of Dems in NY that are moving against Schumer but locating that movement from here is a tad bit tricky. Any ideas from you on how I would locate those people and ask for action?

I guess I just wish that some "big picture" Dems would expand these individual actions and recognize that ALL of the Dems who voted for Mukasey deserve censure. We need to call out ALL of those who made that terrible vote or it's easier to deflect the attention and make just one person the target. The vote for Mukasey demonstrated a systemic problem with more than a few Dems on judicial issues like torture and executive power, accountability and cronyism. A censure movement against all of those Dems would be more effective, imho, than just targeting Feinstein.

In case I didn't make it clear however I am glad to see CA Dems stepping up to the plate and going after Feinstein. I applaud that. I just wish that kind of activism was more widespread. The dwindling energy of activists in the face of this Rethug adminstration is distressing overall and something I remarked upon when I posted pics from the Chicago peace rally last month. Activism fatique is rampant (is there such a thing?!) and any action that makes a stab at the sliding away of our democracy gets a thumbs up from me.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Word! n/t

[bryant69]

6. That's a good idea, I hope they do do it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Maraya1969]

8. It's high time Dems started making their elected officials responsible for their behavior.

[annabanana]

10. And so she should. So Should Chuck, but I don't see any

dems shaking their fingers at him.

[SteveM]

12. Schumer is the leading light of the "gun control" interest groups...

even though Feinstein is just as prohibitionist. But she is so crap-in-her-pants hypocritical that the "smart set" of the Dems may want to single her out. (Did you know DiFi used to pack a handgun? That she still has armed body guards?) Both should catch flak, but she is seen as most obnoxious and since Democrats have few developed and clear issues to campaign on, why not resort to some amorphous sense of style?