SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were first elected U.S. senators from California in 1992 — a historic victory for women — Feinstein sat Boxer down and told her, “You’ve got to stick with this. The longer you stay, the better you’ll feel, the more you’ll get done.”
Boxer took the advice to heart and stayed in office 24 years before retiring in 2017.
“She was right. There’s no question about it,” Boxer told the Bay Area News Group on Friday. “But having said that, you’ve got to be able to do the job.”
Feinstein has been unable to do that job for the past two months as the 89-year-old and oldest member of the U.S. Senate slowly recovers from shingles. She has missed more than 60 votes so far this year, leading a number of her fellow Democrats to call for her resignation, including Rep. Ro Khanna of the Bay Area.
Although Boxer said it’s Feinstein’s decision, she said she has reached out to those close to the ailing senator and made it clear that if she were in Feinstein’s place, “I would call together the people who love me the most, and I would call my doctors and I would call my colleagues who I trust the most and make a decision.”
But Boxer stopped short of saying what that decision should be while acknowledging that it would be difficult for Feinstein to leave because she has always seen her job “as a calling.”
“She so loves the work, the ability to make a difference. Believe me, I understand. That’s why I’m saying it’s really hard,” Boxer said. “But I guess it was Pete Seeger who wrote there’s a season for everything … turn, turn, turn.”
Feinstein already had announced that she would not seek a sixth term in 2024. To appease her critics, she announced this week that she would temporarily step back from her role on the Judiciary Committee, which — without Feinstein’s deciding vote — has built a backlog of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations to advance to the federal bench. She made the announcement hours after Khanna tweeted: “We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who stepped down from her leadership role after Republicans won the House in November, suggested to reporters Wednesday that “political agendas” may be at work by those “going after Sen. Feinstein. I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way.”
Feinstein’s offer to step back might not be enough to get the Senate moving, however, because at least 10 Republicans are needed to approve her replacement on the Judiciary Committee. If they don’t, Boxer said Friday, “it would be the nastiest, meanest kind of hardball and extremely disrespectful of the senator.”
Boxer and Feinstein made history together when they were both elected in what became known as “The Year of the Woman” after the contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Critical testimony from his former staff member, Anita Hill, was largely discounted by the male-dominated panel.
The two California senators are Democrats, but their philosophies and policies diverged with Boxer more progressive and Feinstein more moderate. Boxer voted against the war in Iraq. Feinstein voted for it. Boxer fought for salmon fisheries. Feinstein fought for Central Valley water interests.
One night, Boxer remembers, they had dinner together and discussed that while they may disagree, “we will do no harm. We will respect each other because this partnership is too important for our state.”
Boxer has exchanged emails and letters with Feinstein but hasn’t spoken to her directly since shortly after Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, died of cancer a year ago at age 86, a loss that Feinstein told her was “harder than she ever thought it would be.”
Boxer said she has often told Feinstein how much she is enjoying her post-Senate life and recently returned from Florida where she gave a speech to Planned Parenthood.
“I left at the top of my game,” said Boxer, who left the Senate when she was 76. “I’ve told her many times that it’s wonderful to be in California, to do the work you want, to teach, to speak. I’ve told her that, but that was me. This is Dianne.”
