Senate loses giant in Dianne Feinstein: ‘A trailblazer in every sense of that word’

The Senate lost one of its giants when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) died at her home in Washington, DC, at the age of 90, ending a long, storied political career that helped pave the way for women to rise to new heights of political power in America.

Feinstein passed away at age 90 late on Thursday night, only hours after she cast the final vote of her illustrious career, which senators praised and reminisced about during hours of floor speeches throughout Friday.

Several senators teared up on the floor as they talked about their cherished colleague, standing only a few feet away from Feinstein’s Senate desk, which was draped with a black shroud and decorated with a crystal vase full of white flowers.

“She was smart, she was strong, she was brave, she was compassionate,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Friday morning, his voice choking up at times with emotion.

Schumer declared that his colleague’s “integrity” was “the trait that stood out most.”

“Her integrity was a diamond. Her integrity shone like a beacon across the Senate and across the country for all to see and hopefully emulate,” Schumer said.

The longtime California Democrat broke glass ceilings throughout her career.

She was the first woman to represent California in the Senate, the first woman to chair the Senate Judiciary, Rules and Intelligence Committees and the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco.

She was a member of the historic class of women elected to the Senate in 1992, which became the “Year of the Woman” after Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and former Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) also won election to the upper chamber.

As a result, the number of women in the Senate grew from two to six. That number later grew to 25 by the start of the 118th Congress, with many citing Feinstein as a significant influence.

“I followed her long before I ever got to call her my colleague. She was a role model to many, but when I joined the Senate … she always reached out,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) told The Hill in a brief interview, adding that she was “especially good” at gathering members away from Capitol Hill to help grow relationships on a bipartisan basis, especially among the women of the Senate.

“She’s a trailblazer in every sense of that word,” Baldwin added.

Feinstein ultimately became the longest-serving woman in the history of the Senate at the time of her death, with members mentioning her name in the same sentence as the likes of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) as titanic figures of the upper chamber.

Federal Assault Weapons Ban

Perhaps her greatest legislative achievement was the passage of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which then-President Clinton signed into law and prohibited the sale and manufacture of assault-style weapons for a decade.

Schumer, who led the efforts to pass gun-control legislation in the House in the mid-nineties, recalled the intense opposition Feinstein faced from the National Rifle Association at the time.

“The NRA was a relentless and often mean-spirited and chauvinistic foe,” Schumer recalled. “They didn’t scare her. They didn’t stop her and they failed against her. Like most of her opponents, they failed against her.”

The weapons ban expired in 2004 and one academic study published in 2020 found evidence showing the number of mass shootings increased after it lapsed.

Even so, the effectiveness of the assault weapons ban has been fiercely debated and the proposal itself became a rallying cry for the gun-rights movement.

Congress never came close to passing another assault weapons ban even after high profile shootings with AR-15-style weapons at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.

Global war on terror

Feinstein also spearheaded the fight against the U.S. government’s use of torture during the global war on terror that following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

That culminated in her release of the Intelligence Committee’s report in 2014 documenting the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” against detainees, such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, among other harsh methods.

The report cast serious doubts on the effectiveness of those tactics in collecting intelligence.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recounted the bruising fight with the Central Intelligence Agency to get the report done and the executive summary published.

“She had to get through massive counterattacks from the CIA on her and on our Intelligence Committee staff,” he said.

Her committee’s report later became the basis of a movie in which Annette Bening played her on screen.

“Dianne Feinstein showed the courage to stand up and not just say ‘no,’ but ‘hell no,’” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, referring to her probe into torture techniques.

Feinstein wasn’t afraid to buck her own party’s leaders at times. She did so in 2009 when she broke with party leaders who were reluctant to seat Roland Burris (D-Ill.) as former Sen. Barrack Obama’s replacement in the Senate because of ethical scandal swirling around then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s handling of the appointment.

Feinstein, however, argued it would undermine gubernatorial power, a stance that may have helped preserve California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s power to now appoint her successor.

Her willingness to doggedly pursue policy goals and her ability to take a political punch and return one just as sharp prompted former President George W. Bush’s to nickname her and Boxer, California’s other senator “Ali and Frazier.”

Longtime senators remembered how Feinstein’s personal touch softened the hard edges of Washington politics throughout her career.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recalled the dinner Feinstein hosted for he and his wife, who was pregnant at the time with twins, and their lively banter about books at the meal. The topic was a natural talker because Wyden’s wife owns the famed Strand bookstore in New York City.

Colleagues say Feinstein always knew how to be gracious.

Murray spoke on the floor about a time when she complimented one of Feinstein’s purses, only for Feinstein to order one and have it delivered to Murray’s home.

“That was Dianne. … “I’m so sorry I didn’t hug her when she went back out that door yesterday,” Murray said in conclusion.

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