The Feinstein situation

It’s not good:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday pushed back on claims that her extended absence from the Senate, and the Judiciary Committee, as she recovers from shingles has caused a significant delay in advancing and confirming judicial nominees. Feinstein indicated in the statement that she still plans to return but did not say when that would happen.

“The Senate continues to swiftly confirm highly qualified individuals to the federal judiciary, including seven more judicial nominees who were confirmed this week. There has been no slowdown,” the California Democrat said in a statement.

But she acknowledged that some nominees have been blocked from moving forward during her absence. Without Feinstein, the committee is tied. Under the power-sharing agreement in the last Congress, which had a 50-50 Senate, there was a provision that allowed for a tied nominee to be discharged from committee and put on the floor. That rule is no longer in place, according to an aide on the committee. So, unless a judge has bipartisan support, the nominee fails in committee and doesn’t come to the floor.

“I’m disappointed that Republicans on the committee are blocking a few from moving forward. I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote,” she said.

While Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin has not called for Feinstein to resign, he previously acknowledged to CNN that the 89-year-old senator’s absence has slowed down their push to confirm nominees.

“I can’t consider nominees in these circumstances because a tie vote is a losing vote in committee,” Durbin said.

Asked if her absence has longer ramifications on the Democrats’ ability to confirm nominees, the Senate chairman said, “Yes, of course it does,” pointing to the long process of getting nominees scheduled for votes during precious floor time.

I assume these statements are being generated by her staff, with minimal if any contribution on her part. The staff’s incentives for her to remain in office are too obvious to belabor.

My understanding is that shingles can be very debilitating in elderly patients (Feinstein will be 90 next month), and can take many months to recover from to the point where normal activity can resume. ETA: In addition the deeper problem here of course is that Feinstein’s cognitive function has been in fairly steep decline, and that process isn’t going to stop while she’s absent.

There’s essentially no way to remove Feinstein without her consent, as an expulsion vote requires a two-thirds majority, and you can bet all Republicans and a goodly number of Democrats are just fine with the status quo in this clubbiest of clubs. (Members of Congress can’t be recalled by state-level initiatives).

It’s going to be a long 20 months.