Quid Pro Quo Ambassadorship May Facilitate Exit For Senator Dianne Feinstein

Those who follow DC politics know the democrat party apparatus has been looking for a diplomatic way for a deteriorating Senator Feinstein to gracefully exit the world of politics.  A recent report from California outlines a likely possibility:

CALIFORNIA – The California Globe has confirmed with two sources that Richard C Blum, who is married to California’s senior US Senator, Dianne Feinstein, is in talks with the Biden transition committee about an ambassadorship. The understanding is that if such an opportunity were provided to Blum, an investor and philanthropist, Feinstein would exit the US Senate.

Feinstein has served in the US Senate for 28 years, having first been elected in a 1992 special election to fill the seat of Senator Pete Wilson, who resigned to become California’s governor. Democrats have been searching for a gentle way to ease the 87-year-old Feinstein out of office. That push assumed greater urgency with the publication of a devastating article in the New Yorker earlier this month.  (read more)

Feinstein is as cognitively capable as Joe Biden, which is to say: she ain’t.  Additionally, the political life of Feinstein has provided her entire family a large amount of affluence.  Her husband, Richard Blum, has made hundreds of millions from her position.

[…]  Blum has also been scrutinized in the past for his ownership stakes in companies that have business before the US Senate. In 2018, for example, Feinstein failed to disclose that Blum “owned more than $100,000 in Facebook shares until after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to the Senate.” The Senator corrected the oversight after Blum’s stake was reported.

Blum’s firm also held a majority stake in California military contractor Tutor Perini, which was awarded billions in contracts during the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some government watchdogs opining that the position provided a fatal conflict of interest for Sen. Feinstein, who voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq in 2002.

During the financial crisis, Feinstein sponsored legislation to provide $25 billion in public money to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which awarded CB Richard Ellis what the Washington Times characterized as “a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.” (link)

In the insider game of selling influence for personal affluence Senator Feinstein was an apex player in her prime.  However, she is no longer of value to the tribe as the more totalitarian crew are waiting in the wings to push a more extreme ideological effort.

The move would also place a safety net under the current California governor Gavin Newsom in the event any recall effort was successful.