Peggy Grande: Dianne Feinstein shows her true colors in the Kavanaugh fight

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (left) confers with other committee members, Sens. Patrick Leahy and Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Senator Dianne Feinstein has had a long and illustrious career with moments of great leadership, but in the recent Kavanaugh hearings, the California Democrat exposed herself as a standard partisan hack, leading the charge into an unnecessary, and losing battle. As a result, she showed that she and her party are desperate and power hungry, but are NOT champions for women.

Growing up in California I have known of Senator Feinstein all my adult life.  In fact, she had a condo in Los Angeles right across the street from where Ronald Reagan’s office was and where I worked for 10 years.  We crossed paths on several occasions and even though we are on different sides of the political aisle I always found her to be cordial, measured, a voice of reason and common sense that could be relied upon, even if her ultimate conclusion or vote was one I didn’t agree with or support.

What happened to THAT Dianne Feinstein?  After so many admirable years of public service, how did she drift so far out of the mainstream?  How did she lose the plot? Most Dems eventually do but I thought she was the exception to that.  I was clearly wrong and am deeply disappointed in her, as are many Californians.

But this Judicial Committee hearing was never about justice for Dr. Ford or about hearing and validating her claims. It was about creating a narrative of negativity against Judge Kavanaugh, fabricating a cloud of suspicion and doubt that would hopefully fog the room and make it impossible to distinguish fact from fiction and cause chaos to the point that the Judiciary Committee would throw up their hands and say, “it’s just not worth it – let’s go with someone else.”  Thank goodness they didn’t.

This was never about Kavanaugh either – it was about anyone Trump nominated that would potentially tip the court to the right.  Yet the Democrats wouldn’t have blinked an eye over appointing a 5th liberal judge if they had been give the chance.  They would have gloated that this is the process and the precedent and Republicans just need to accept it.  But that never works the other way.  This confirmation had to be derailed by the Democrats at any expense – even at the expense of a poor woman whose testimony was the center of a circus, not at the center of justice.

Regardless of who you believed or what your politics are, we all should celebrate the fact that the rule of law ultimately prevailed.  It was hanging precariously in the balance there for a while, but ultimately justice was served.  It came in the form of some surprising heroes – Senator Lindsay Graham for one, and Senator Susan Collins.  It came in the form of Senators like Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz who were verbally attacked in public yet refused to be bullied into silence or cave to the pressure or the fear.

Perhaps in the upcoming election my fellow Californians will realize Senator Feinstein is actually not a champion for women – or maybe not for anyone except herself and her party - and will choose to send someone else to D.C. to represent them.

A true champion for women would have handled the Christine Blasey Ford accusation entirely differently than Senator Feinstein did.  A champion for women would have afforded her the decency of privacy, to vet this claim behind closed doors, as is regularly done in confirmation cases, and as she personally had requested.

A champion for women would have handled this early and discreetly, at a place and time of Dr. Ford’s convenience, not allowing her to be used as a puppet in a political circus, herself unaware of all the ways she had been betrayed by those claiming to support her.

A true champion for women would be speaking out for the women who have accused Keith Ellison and Bill Clinton of sexual and physical misconduct. And she would also speak out for innocent bystanders caught in the crosshairs of this national charade – Mrs. Kavanaugh and her two young daughters.  They are among the truest victims and yet have not received her support, or her apology.

A true champion for women would celebrate the historic low unemployment that women all across the nation are experiencing and would be applauding our president for making that happen, regardless of party.

Is Senator Feinstein really a champion for women?  All women?  Or just those who fit into her political narrative, serve her political purposes and can be used by her and the political machine to amass additional power for the Democratic Party?

In an ironic twist it looks as though she may have actually become a pawn in her own scheme, doing the bidding of Chuck Schumer and the Democratic leadership and now taking the fall for them. She clearly crossed some ethical, and potentially even legal, lines in doing so.

Perhaps in the upcoming election my fellow Californians will realize Senator Feinstein is actually not a champion for women – or maybe not for anyone except herself and her party - and will choose to send someone else to D.C. to represent them.