Dianne Feinstein

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Feinstein fumes as Trump administration pushes forward with 9th Circuit nominees without consulting her
Gregg Re By Gregg Re | Fox News

The Senate is poised this week to consider two more conservative nominees selected by President Trump to sit on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee isn't happy about it.

That's because the nominees, Ken Lee and Dan Collins, were picked without any input from either Dianne Feinstein or Kamala Harris, California's two Democrat senators. Traditionally, the White House seeks to obtain a so-called "blue slip," or approval, from a judicial nominee's two home-state senators before pressing on with their nominations.

But the Trump administration, which has successfully nominated several conservative judges to the 9th Circuit already, has pointedly disregarded that process as it continues its push to transform the appellate court that the president repeatedly has derided as hopelessly biased and "disgraceful."

"I take it that without notice or discussion, the blue slip is essentially dead," Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in televised remarks on Thursday. "This change in practice not only harms the Senate, it harms the federal judiciary. And I wish we could’ve had an opportunity to discuss it. I really believe it’s a mistake."

Feinstein went on: "Before President Trump took office, the blue slip had been a Senate practice for nearly one century. And during the past 100 years, before this presidency, the Senate confirmed only five judges with only one blue slip, and the last one was in 1989 – and in 100 years the Senate had never confirmed a judge without two blue slips."

But "since President Trump took office," Feinstein charged, "Republicans have held hearings for 12 circuit court nominees and voted to confirm seven – seven – over the objection of home-state Democrats."

Among those nominees was Seattle attorney Eric Miller, who was confirmed to the 9th Circuit in February by a vote of 53-46. Progressives fiercely attacked Miller as a corporate lawyer and Federalist Society member whose career supposedly had been hostile to Native American rights.

Feinstein continued: "There is no justification for disregarding Democratic blue slips. Democratic senators have made and continue to make good faith efforts to find consensus picks for the circuit courts.

"As Senator Harris and I have made clear, we’ve been willing to work from the start with this president to choose consensus, mainstream nominees to the 9th Circuit," Feinstein added. "One of the things I’ve learned is: what goes around, comes around. I had hoped that we would be able to work in a very cooperative way.”

In January, Feinstein and Harris lashed out at the White House with a similar statement: “We are deeply disappointed that the White House has chosen to re-nominate Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee to the 9th Circuit. We made clear our opposition to these individuals and told the White House we wanted to work together to come to consensus on a new package of nominees.”

Speaking to reporters in Mar-a-Lago, President Trump laments 'terrible decisions from the Ninth Circuit,' suggests Congress gets involved.

With a sprawling purview representing nine Western states, the 9th Circuit has long been a thorn in the side of the Trump White House, with rulings against his travel ban policy and limits on funding to "sanctuary cities."

Just weeks ago, the 9th Circuit broke ranks with another federal appellate court and ruled that a Sri Lankan man who failed his initial asylum screening had the constitutional right to go before a judge -- threatening to clog the immigration court system further with tens of thousands of similar claims per year and setting up an all-but-certain Supreme Court showdown.

However, the court's left-wing reputation might be changing, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Republicans have continued to use the GOP majority to confirm judge after judge appointed by the president.

Among Trump's other recent successful picks to the 9th Circuit: Ryan Nelson, a former staffer to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions; former Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett; and Magistrate Judge Bridget Bade.

Following Miller's confirmation month, in an analysis titled "Thanks to Trump, the liberal 9th Circuit is no longer liberal," The Washington Post noted that once all of Trump's current nominees to the bench are confirmed as expected, there will be 12 Republican-appointed judges on the 9th Circuit, which consists of 29 full-time judges.

Videos at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feinstein-fumes-as-trump-administration-pushes-forward-with-9th-circuit-nominees-without-consulting-her

Dianne Feinstein Secretly Met With The Iranians Last Week And People Have Questions
Posted at 9:22 am on May 25, 2019 by Bonchie

I’m old enough to remember when the media lost their minds over some GOP Senators releasing a public letter reminding Iran that any nuclear deal must be approved by the Senate.

Countless “did Republicans break the law?” articles flooded mainstream outlets after that episode and there was plenty of gnashing of teeth on CNN’s panels. That was back when the Logan Act was in vogue though. It’s now out of favor and totally crazy-pants to bring up because it’s Democrats who are brazenly flaunting it. To this point, the main issue has been John Kerry, who’s perverse relationship with Iran has led him to meet with them multiple times, encouraging the Islamic regime to essentially wait out Donald Trump. Why an American would be so invested in an Islamic dictatorship not relenting to sanctions is a bit of a mystery but we aren’t allowed to speculate because again, he’s a Democrat.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein apparently wants in on the action and David Harsanyi rightly wonders how this isn’t “collusion” with a foreign enemy.

Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin?

Such a scenario seems nearly ­inconceivable. Yet, it’s exactly the situation Sen. Dianne Feinstein created when hosting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for dinner a few weeks ago.

Politico reported on the meeting, noting that it was “a bit unusual” for a former chair of the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate minority to dine out with the acting foreign minister of an adversary of the United States. And by “unusual,” Politico meant completely unprecedented.

Javad Zarif is of course the “moderate” the Obama administration elevated that’s actually not moderate at all and is simply doing the Mullah’s bidding. But he goes on CNN and wears a suit, so it’s all good. Feinstein has been supporting the Iranian position on the nuclear issue throughout the recent tensions, opposing Trump’s escalations of sanctions to try to force their hand and stop their terrorist activity.

Feinstein isn’t merely just any senator, either. She is one of the leading proponents of reinstituting the Obama administration’s failed Iran deal. Only recently the California senator blamed the Trump ­administration, rather than Iranian mullahs who’ve spent years taking Americans hostages and threatening our friends, of “increasing the chances of an unnecessary military conflict with Iran.”

Yet, she’s meeting with the Iranians and telling them what, exactly? We can pretty much guess at that. Just like Kerry, she almost certainly advised them to wait until 2021 in hopes that a President Joe Biden will be back in the saddle to re-give away the farm. Despite the insidious nature of that, nothing will happen to Feinstein. Undermining of Donald Trump is basically a sport at this point and the same people who freaked out about such things during the Obama years cheer it on now.

All along the way, the mainstream media will remain silent, because that’s what they do when a Democrat is involved.

The political media, which act as if every contact the Trump administration has ever had with a Russian-speaking person is potential act of sedition, doesn’t seem particularly concerned about the ­unusual Zarif meeting.

Perhaps when there’s a chance, though, someone with access can ask Feinstein what she told the Iranians. Did she share specifics about her faction’s efforts to undermine the executive branch? Did she tell the Iranians to wait out the Trump administration for a Democratic president who will once again kowtow to them? Did she tell Zarif that Democrats would possess more flexibility once the next election was over?

Anyone think any media outlet is going to even bother asking her those questions? Now imagine we were talking about Ted Cruz meeting with the Iranians during Obama’s negotiations. Anyone think that might be a national scandal? Again, we don’t even have to speculate. GOP Senators simply sending a letter triggered weeks of cloths tearing coverage.

Dianne Feinstein meeting with the Iranians at a secret dinner though? That’s not worth mentioning at all. For example, CNN has not reported on the meeting as of this writing. The same applies to most other mainstream outlets. These are the same people who go insane over any innocuous contact between a Russian and a Trump associate, shouting collusion from the rooftops. Iran is objectively an enemy of the United States and Feinstein’s meeting doesn’t even register.

The double standard that exists when it comes to Presidents and foreign policy is stark. Democrat Presidents are given complete autonomy and if you question it, you are accused of violating the Logan Act. When a Republican President is in office, whether it be Reagan, Bush, or Trump, it becomes open season for the opposing party to shadow negotiate with our enemies. All the while a compliant liberal media makes sure the proper narratives are pushed.

https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2019/05/25/dianne-feinstein-secretly-met-iranians-people-questions/