By Alec Regimbal : sfgate – excerpt
Two of California’s highest profile Democrats — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Adam Schiff, the latter of whom is running for Senate — have recently rallied around the same excuse for keeping Sen. Dianne Feinstein in her seat through the 2024 general election.
Feinstein is a member of the highly important Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. Appointing judges to federal courts is something Democrats can do without support from Republicans, and Feinstein’s multi-month absence from the Senate earlier this year — the result of a shingles diagnoses and complications from that diagnosis — left the committee evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, who refused to advance any judicial nominees in her absence…
Their argument is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could attempt to block any Feinstein replacements from joining the Senate Judiciary Committee, effectively stalling Biden’s judicial nominees until the 2024 general election. According to a Wednesday report from Politico, Newsom — who was stumping for Biden in Boise over the holiday — forcefully made that point to a man who asked him to help push Feinstein out before her term ends next year.
“You think Mitch McConnell is going to seat another federal judge? Not a chance in hell. You better wish, you better pray, for her health,” he told the man, who, according to Politico, said he’d never considered that before backing away from Newsom…(more)