Good for the California Democratic Party:
One day after voting to elevate a divisive conservative judge to the federal appeals court in New Orleans, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was the president's guest aboard Air Force One. She had been invited to survey the damage from the recent spate of Southern California wildfires.
The senator later remarked privately that she found her conversation with Bush aboard Air Force One "illuminating," a source close to Feinstein told the Huffington Post.
Two weeks later, Feinstein was one of two Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee to vote to send Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the new attorney general to the full Senate. Her support helped turn the tide in favor of a nomination that faced an uncertain future after Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding was torture.
When the full Senate voted, Feinstein was one of only six Democrats to vote in favor of confirming Mukasey.
Now, a coalition of progressive Democrats upset with Feinstein's controversial votes will ask the California Democratic Party to censure her at its executive board meeting this weekend, the Huffington Post has learned.
She is the perfect example of someone who needs to be primaried, if she chooses to run again in 2012 (she'll be 80). California is one of the most progressive states in the country. I could live with her if she were from Utah. Not California.
Act like, you know, a Democrat Mrs. Feinstein, or how shall I put it? Okay, here goes: Take your ball and GO HOME.
