Just before Harvey Milk was assassinated by a right-wing freak at the end of November, 1978 I had been spending a lot of time with him at his camera store, next door to my business partner's record store, Aquarius, on Castro Street. Harvey didn't have enough foul stuff to say about a fellow Supervisor Dianne Feinstein who was, along with the murderer, Dan White, the persona who represented the Republican interests on the Board. Harvey told me many times why he could never trust her. And she was the greatest beneficiary of the assassinations that November. A not especially well-known Supervisor and mostly disliked by those who did know her, became took over the mayor's job when George Moscone and Harvey were killed by her ally.
In 1984 she campaigned shamelessly to be Walter Mondale's woman VP nominee but he rejected her for Geraldine Ferraro. She survived a recall and later won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, only to lose to the unpopular and ineffective Republican Pete Wilson, who went on to destroy California's Republican Party. Wilson had to vacate his Senate seat to become governor and Feinstein-- who was in the middle of a gigantic campaign finance scandal-- won Wilson's seat and became what has amounted to Senator-for-Life, primarily because Democrats vote for her as the lesser of two evils and Republicans don't really have any reason to oppose her strongly.
A multimillionsire reeking of gross corruption, she's now well-entrenched as part of a decrepit and rotten DC establishment. Right now she and her junior partner in crime, the more "liberal" of the pair, Barbara Boxer, are engaged in a full-time sabotage operation against Bernie in the lead-up to the Democratic primary. The two are so thoroughly disliked by voters that their efforts will drive California Democrats to vote for Bernie. In Washington, however, these two clowns are taken very seriously. Feinstein wants corrupt Nevada political boss, Harry Reid, to do something drastic to discredit Bernie before California Democrats vote June 7. "He is the Democratic leader of the Senate, and Senator Sanders is a member of the Democratic caucus. He’s not a Democrat, he’s an independent-- he’s really a socialist," she puked out with disdain, "but he’s a member of our caucus, and as such, he should listen."
Her ideological ally, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of the two Senate Democrats most likely to vote with the GOP on any given bill, and who must have been so sad to see West Virginia Democrats give Bernie a 123,860 (51.4%) to 86,354 (35.8%) victory, winning every single county in the state, despite Manchin stumping for Clinton, agreed with Feinstein about Bernie. This guy said "Bernie’s not a Democrat. What are we worried about? Why would Bernie want to play nice? I’m just saying if a person doesn’t even want to conform to be Democratic, it’s kind of hard to say, 'OK, all of a sudden you have to do all these things.'"
Can you imagine conservative dogs like Feinstein and Manchin, who serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful and spit on working families, lecturing Bernie on being a Democrat? Anything to get their crap candidate elected! What about that great Pennsylvania Democrat Arlen Specter?
I sadly admit to having voted for DINO DiFi ONCE, when she first ran for the Senate. But as she quickly tapped into the MIC gravy train to benefit her corporatist hubby, she lost my support. I was able to vote third party for the Senate seat at least once, but then the ridiculous "open" primary law took effect, and I was stuck with only the two major party candidates from then on. I'd rather leave the slot blank than vote for either DINO DiFi or a Republican - and I have.
ReplyDelete