Last year, ultra-liberal elements within the Democratic Party
waged a heated political battle against Sen. Joe Lieberman, their
vice-presidential nominee of just six years earlier. But if you
thought that liberal cannibalism stopped with the attack on
Connecticut’s junior senator, think again. The left wing has now
set its sights on California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another
centrist Democrat who has failed to walk in lockstep with the
increasingly puritanical left.
Why are the hardcore lefties so upset with Feinstein? In August,
she voted for a bill reforming the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) — a vote they interpreted as a thumbs-up
for widespread, unchecked domestic spying by the Bush
administration. Just days earlier, as a member of the Judiciary
Committee, she was the lone Democrat to vote to send Judge Leslie
Southwick’s nomination to the Senate floor. That move was described
as “incomprehensible” by People For the American Way President
Ralph G. Neas, who must have been even less impressed with her vote
last month to actually confirm Southwick.
But that’s not all. Last week, Feinstein sided with Republicans
on the Senate Judiciary Committee on putting Attorney General
Michael Mukasey’s nomination to a vote. Days later, she sided with
them again, helping to confirm a man derided on liberal blog DailyKos as “George Bush’s
latest torture-enabling Attorney General.” To boot, Feinstein
confirmed the same day that she supports granting legal immunity to
telecom companies that shared customers’ details with the
government as part of terrorist surveillance efforts.
Such cardinal sins have left Feinstein facing a censure resolution that left-wing activists hope
to move at the California Democratic Party’s executive board
meeting tomorrow. Proclaiming Democrats’ “disappointment at, and
censure of, Senator Feinstein for ignoring Democratic principles
and falling so far below the standard of what we expect of our
elected officials,” the resolution faces an uphill battle. Before
it can be considered by the party’s executive board, the
resolutions committee must approve the text unanimously. Even if it
does, the resolution may not pass — according to its
communications director, the California State Party remains
supportive of Feinstein.
Still, that shouldn’t suggest that the resolution is without
strong backing from important players. It will be introduced by
East Bay for Democracy, a chartered Democratic Club outside San
Francisco that has already itself censured Feinstein. But, it’s
also being touted by prolific left-wing bloggers at sites like
Firedoglake, Huffington Post and OpenLeft.com — and it’s earned
the backing of the Courage Campaign, a group founded and chaired by
Rick Jacobs, the chairman of Howard Dean’s California campaign.
Such voices are increasingly powerful within today’s Democratic
Party. The netroots, for their part, were instrumental in ejecting
Lieberman from the party last year. This year, they’ve stayed on
the march with efforts to rein in “rogue” (i.e., moderate)
Democrats via the establishment of Working For Us PAC, which aims
to generate bad publicity and even support primary challengers
prepared to run against Democratic “problem children.”
Feinstein no doubt meets that description in the eyes of many
liberals, even though last year, she earned the lowest possible 0
percent rating from the American Conservative Union, and voted more
liberally than 76.5 percent of her colleagues on economic, defense
and foreign policy issues, and more than 70 percent of senators on
social issues, according to National Journal. By any
objective standard, she remains a liberal. But, like Lieberman,
according to the American left, she’s a right-wing Bush clone, in
need of taking down.
Luckily, for Feinstein, she won re-election last year. So,
unlike Lieberman, who faced off against liberal darling Ned Lamont
at the height of Bush Derangement Syndrome-fuelled anti-war
backlash, she’s in no immediate political danger. Perhaps this is
what has freed Feinstein to take stances that she views as
principled, and to dare to take steps like setting foot on Air
Force One to survey the damage of the California wildfires with the
President. Certainly, were she running next year, the latter scene
would have provided much fodder for MoveOn.org-style attack ads
featuring Feinstein’s equivalent of Lieberman’s “kiss.” As it is,
it still looks likely to generate some criticism.
Ultimately, Feinstein may have to contend with getting the
proverbial slap from her party, if the censure resolution moves
ahead. But, regardless of whether the resolution passes, she’ll
have to get used to a playing new role: that of the New Joe
Lieberman, Black Sheep of the Democratic Party.
