Step Aside Before You're Shoved Aside

There's been some discussion in the news the past week or so about US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca). She's missed most votes in the Senate over the past few months as she's been recovering slowly from a case of shingles. Her prolonged absence seems related to her age. Older people take long to recover from sickness. At age 89, Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator. This has renewed calls— from within her own party— for her to resign.

"Age discrimination!" her supporters charge. "You're biased against old people!"

Enh, no. It's not "old" that's the issue, it's "absent for a prolonged period due to sickness with no clear prognosis for returning soon." The party, and the voters in her state, need a representative who's there.

Being there matters. Feinstein sits on the important Senate Judiciary Committee. Already her absence has empowered Republicans to block the president's federal court appointments. Now (today) they're even blocking attempts to temporarily substitute in another Democrat. They've seized power due to her absence and they will not voluntarily relinquish it. Feinstein needs to step down so that a new senator can be appointed and end this stalemate.

Understand that this one issue is not the only reason people have been calling for Dianne Feinstein to resign. Some Democrats have been observing for a few years that she's no longer fit for the job. Again, her supporters have always screamed "Age discrimination!" But again, it's not about the mere numerical fact of someone's age. It's about how well they're able to do the job.

Dianne Feinstein has been unable to do her job like it's the 2020s. Several months ago I wrote about how Democrat leaders are failing to communicate effectively in the modern media environment. Feinstein is one of the main culprits. Her manner of governance harks back to a bygone time in politics, a time of collegiality and norms of democratic government. That's no longer the reality. Senator Feinstein is still playing pat-a-cake when it's a knife fight.

It's time for the senator to step aside. Actually it's past time. Those who don't step aside when they ought to often get shoved aside eventually. In the meantime, those of us who count on effective representation in government lose out.

Fox News Settles Dominion Lawsuit Out of Court

Today Fox News settled a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems at the last moment before it went to trial. With jury selection complete, Fox asked for a brief delay and, in a last-ditch, 3-hour negotiation, settled with Dominion for $787 million dollars and change over false claims it aired that Dominion's voting machines rigged the 2020 election against Donald Trump. Dominion had asked for damages of $1.6 billion and public acknowledgement of the dishonesty.

While some marvel at the number, over three-quarters of a billion dollars, it really isn't that huge.

• One, it's less than 8% of Fox New's revenues last year.


• Two, it's less than half what Fox News founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch paid to settle his divorce from his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann— all the way back in 1999. (Murdoch divorced wife #4, Jerry Hall, last year and recently called off an engagement to would-be wife #5, Ann Lesley Smith.)


• Three, it avoids the costly reputational damage of Fox News executive and star personalities having to testify, in open court, that they knowingly put liars on TV and promoted their lies.


• But most importantly, $787 million is only a drop in the bucket compared to the damage done to the whole United States by Fox News's propagation of the Great Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump through widespread vote fraud.