From "On Senate Choice, Newsom Was in a Box of His Own Making/Gov. Gavin Newsom of California’s choice of a successor to Dianne Feinstein was complicated by two television interviews that attracted political pressure from many sides" (NYT).
Some were reluctant to give up their existing seats for what appeared to be a time-limited Senate appointment, or to undermine Ms. Lee.... [And when Newsom] said that he would only replace Senator Feinstein with an interim appointee. Ms. Lee, 77, took immediate umbrage. “The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election,” she said in a statement.
Mr. Newsom’s team was taken aback....
Why wasn't he able to predict Lee's reaction? Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President.
Ms. Lee’s camp continued to push hard behind the scenes, asserting to Mr. Newsom that she was the only logical choice. With the Congressional Black Caucus backing Ms. Lee and few other powerful Black officeholders showing interest, the pool of viable nominees was shrinking by the day....
ADDED: Maybe when Newsom made his promise to appoint a black woman — back in 2021 — it made sense to him because he intended to honor Lee. Lee is 77 years old and therefore would be perfectly suited to finishing out a term that ends in 2024. The problem arose when Lee announced — this year — that she was running for election to the next term. Suddenly, Lee couldn't be the "caretaker" occupant of Feinstein's seat. To pick Lee would be to affect the 2024 election, which Newsom did not want to do.
I wonder if Newsom talked to Lee about this before she announced her candidacy and she was offended at being asked to take the seat and only to serve out the term, to be a "caretaker." Maybe that's why she decided to run for the seat in the first place.
The evidence for this theory is in her words: "The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election."
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"Ms. Lee’s camp continued to push hard behind the scenes, asserting to Mr. Newsom that she was the only logical choice."
She's 77. Doesn't sound like a great choice to replace a 90-year-old in a job that she's looking to hold until 2031. What's the upside for the Dem party in turning its Congressional delegation into a gerontocracy?
Biden did the same thing, promising to name a black woman (or maybe a woman "of color"), and look who he ended up with. The best that can be said about it is that at least they are honest, and not pretending to pick the most capable person. If Butler had any pride she would have rejected the appointment, but evidently it was too good to pass up.
Identity politics is absurd. But that's the way Dems think.
We can all see what a failure Kamela Harris is.
Offended if you do, offended if you don’t….
His best "placeholder" pick would have been a 90+/- year old extremely liberal white male. Or a celebrity like Tom Hanks, who everyone loves, and who states categorically he's only the place holder.
That way the Dems get all the correct votes they expect. And, everyone else can keep on campaigning for the seat without undo influence.
But, he's really stepped into it now. Lee is going to have to campaign against a sitting Senator - she will be running, don't pretend otherwise - who has one additional category in her favor - lesbian.
I don't know, maybe stop promising to appoint people on characteristics, like skin color and/or gender, that aren't relevant to the job?
"Look how impetuously Newsom made that pledge to pick a black woman. He was put on the spot by Joy Reid. It seems as though he was just thinking short term, not daring to hesitate and utterly incapable of calculating the broader factors. That makes him seem like a reckless lightweight."
Yeah yeah but there's a distinct difference. When Newsom goes deer in the headlights, at least he acts, albeit wrongly. Grandpa Felonyfingers just stares blankly and tells people about that woman he saved from King Kong in 18 dickety-6 using nought but his former Speaker's gavel festooned with the veil of his lady love, Joan of Arc.
Joy Reid says jump and Newsom says "How High!". Joy Reid tells Biden to jump and he says "trunalimunumaprzure". Vive le Difference!
That’s because he is a reckless lightweight, just like Joe Biden, who painted himself into that same corner and ended up with a matching lightweight as VP.
Promising to choose a black woman Vice President worked out so well for Biden, why wouldn't Newsom try to jump on that bandwagon?
I was surprised that the Governor of California couldn't do the political calculus in his head about promising a senate seat to a particular group. But allow me to play Devil's advocate a bit. The video was from a bit over 2 years ago 3/15/21. This was at the very end of a drive to secure enough signatures to be able to bring a special recall election against Newsom in California. In fact the end date to gather signatures, which had been extended by a judge was, 3/17/21. This signature drive was ultimately successful but at the time Newsom didn't know that so he was trying to muster up enough support so people wouldn't sign the petitions, or if the petition was successful people would vote for him in the recall election. While the signature drive was successful, Newsome ultimately did survive the recall election. I suspect that Newsom was aware of the political risks but deemed the more immediate and exigent circumstance to be to survive the recall attempt, rather than deal with fallout for promising the seat to a particular group. Keep in mind this promise was more than 2 and half years ago. Joy Reid asks her question starting with "If Diane Feinstein retires...". There is a very real chance that Newsom believed he might never have to fill her seat and that Diane Feinstein would serve out the remainder of her term and then not seek reelection. Who knows what Senator Feinstein was telling Democrats behind closed doors? I haven't watched Newsom enough to form a strong opinion on how politically shrewd he is. But one of my own personal general assumptions is that Democrat politicians are better at the base game of politics than Republicans.
If he was an astute politician, and felt compelled to isolate his choices in the matter, he should have chosen a latino. Now he's constrained himself to a politically stupid move by bringing in a carpetbagging ward heeler from another state. Just my two cents, but what base does she command in California if she ain't from there?
Even for California, Barbara Lee is radical. She is a CPUSA communist via their front group, the U.S. Peace Council, which she has headed. Her mentor was Stalinist Carlton Goodlett; she trained with Huey Newton and was the only Cali delegate to vote nay for a resolution to condemn Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and Fidel Castro. She is close to murderer Angela Davis and other domestic terrorists and cop-killers. Her longtime involvement with Chavez and Castro has occupied more of her time than domestic issues and contributed mightily to the suffering of people under communist rule in those nations. She has been cozy with the most unrepentant Stalinists for decades. Not mere communists: Stalinists.
Her long history with Willie Brown and Kamala Harris also creates a headache for the DNC in 2024. Then again, I'm surprised she didn't force Newsom's hand. There's likely a deal in place for her to be the winning candidate when the election comes around.
I didn't vote for him for governor first time but did second. He seems head and shoulders above Biden and Trump (and RFK and West).
Pretty much proof that our government is no longer by the people or for the people, It is by the special interest group for the special interest group. And those "serving" only serve themselves not the people whom they supposedly represent. A spoils system, not a republic.
The idea of not discriminating based on race or sex apparently never occurs to Democrats—much less the thought that race discrimination and sex discrimination could be wrong.
But Democrat leaders apparently want a new 77 year old senator, who would be about 85 at the end of her first full term. What could possibly be better for our republic?
Newsom is an intellectual lightweight. His hair gel is more qualified to be President.
Replacing a 90 year old with a younster of 77 is more of the issue. Can they find no one under 65?
"Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President. " Which one of the likely candidates does?
"Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President."
That bar has been lowered since the last time you voted.
It seems as though he was just thinking short term, not daring to hesitate and utterly incapable of calculating the broader factors.
No, he was thinking long term, but it was long term for Adam Schiff, a White man.
Newsom didn't learn anything from how Biden bungled the selection process for Ketanji Brown to the Supreme Court. He wasn't paying attention. That happened just last year.
Doesn't Mr. Newsome have an obligation to appoint the most qualified person?
Just kidding.
His team was "taken aback". They probably genuinely were, too.
Of course Lee felt insulted. She was insulted. Dude, you're a token to Newsom.
He'll probably be POTUS some day.
I have a vision of Gov. Newsom being whisked away by helicopter from the top of the Capitol in Sacramento. May it happen sooner than 50 years after the Saigon debacle. Incompetence in politics is endemic and eternal. Newsom is no Pericles.
Newsom is a textbook example of what happens when you put a white male politician in a multiracial state, and a place with knee-jerk superficiality dating back decades. He wants power, but CA has long attracted Hollywood and Rock Star and San Francisco free love dreamers. So Newsom, by all appearances a basic functional "business Democrat", has to pander and play to dissonant utopians. He's not the lightweight so much as CA is an intellectually lightweight place and demands the same from their white (Biden | Newsom) surrogates.
RFK Jr. stands up to split the old line white left away from skin color mania.
Newsom is feckless. And tyrannical. He only relinquished Emergency Executive powers last January, 2023. And he used those powers to ban Internal Combustion vehicles starting in 2035. Not sure how that was a pandemic issue.
I dreamed Gov Slick would appoint Condi and shock the world. He could say he felt she was the best pick for the job. Of course it will never happen.
"Mr. Schiff, who led the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was the choice of Ms. Pelosi...." WAIT A MINUTE HERE!!! Are you saying that the "investigation" of the "insurrection" was POLITICAL??? NO! NO! NO!!! The insurrection was an attack on OUR DEMOCRACY!!!.
Maybe the haircut is no indication of intelligence.
I can’t believe he didn’t have a deflecting answer to the question.
.......and Obama lived in the White House for 8 years. Why are we still appointing people for their skin color?
DEI is a harsh mistress. Which is why you pick a lesbian who lives on the other side of the country for the role. The logic is sound. The assumptions are bat**** insane, but the logic is sound.
You skipped over the most important fact in that story: Ms. Lee, who is running for the seat in 2024, is 77! It's one thing for a Senator to grow old while in office, but a first-time Senator who will be at least 78 on Election Day just seems like an attempt to perpetuate the gerontocracy.
To be cornered by Reid is to have boxed oneself into that corner. And yes, it is as stupid as the mixed metaphors suggest.
how did Newsom determine this person is black-woman? that satisfy his pledge
Our hostess observed: "Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President."
Nailed it, sister!
But almost all Californians who voted for him would counter that argument with one overarching fact: he has great hair.
And as Fernando wisely noted on SNL, "Looking good is much more important than being good. And daahling, Chew look mahvelous!"
"Look how impetuously Newsom made that pledge to pick a black woman."
Not at all. He has binders full of black women.
"Replacing a 90 year old with a younster of 77 is more of the issue. Can they find no one under 65?"
She must not have enough mansions yet. At 77, she needs to hurry to keep up.
I have listened to hours of Newsom's unscripted chat, at covid pressers, for example.
He absolutely is a "reckless lightweight" who also loves to hear himself talk.
To qoute our host precisely, Newsom's statement "made [him] seem like a reckless lightweight".
Let me fix that for you Ms. Althouse. Gavin Newsom is a reckless lightweight. Now he's well connected by birth and marriage to the San Francisco Bay Area Democrat cabal--he, like Kamala Harris is one of the 'in gang" in the Feinstein Pelosi world.
In fact there was a question at the time (Moonbeam Brown was termed out again as Governor of California) and Baghdad Barbara Boxer was retiring from her Senate seat. Who would run for what? The Brylcreem Boy was Lt. Governor. Harris was Attorney General. Harris and Newsom were "next in line". Which one of the two would run for Governor, and which one would run for the vacant Boxer Senate seat? In one party California both of these people were a mortal lock to win the two positions. There were apocryphal stories that the question was decided by a coin toss between Newsom and Harris.
He didn't call her first? Either he's a moron or he's deliberately dissing her.
Either way, in the absence of any hope of rational political behavior, this is fun to watch!
Why not Congresswoman Lee, who knows local issues? Silly me I am not up to understanding California politics.
And since the largest ethnic group is Hispanic, why not a Hispanic?
Because abortion is the main issue for Democrats to get the votes of single white upper class ladies?
Perhaps not so coincidentally, Butler's appointment is good for Newsom even if she decides to run in 2024. She'll drain women's votes from Katie Porter and Black votes from Barbara Lee. Newsom's (and Pelosi's) favored candidate, Adam Schiff, is the ultimate beneficiary of that. If Butler chooses not to run, then at least there's no harm done.
"Mr. Schiff, who led the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was the choice of Ms. Pelosi...."
The racist bastards at the NY Times can't acknowledge that Bennie Thompson, a Black man who represents me in the House, led the investigation?
Was he invisible to them?
What does a Black man have to do to get the recognition he deserves from the Northeastern elites who can't see or won't accept how deeply their racism runs?
Barbara Lee wasn't high enough up on the intersectionality scale and was trumped by the Black Lesbian High Priestess of Moloch. I guess age 77 is probably a bit too old to learn new tricks like lesbianism.
I’ve followed California politics my whole adult life and like 99% of the state, I’ve never heard of her.
“Butler was also a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign.”
Surprised she hasn’t airbrushed that from her CV.
I’ve followed California politics my whole adult life and like 99% of the state, I’ve never heard of her.
“Butler was also a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign.”
Surprised she hasn’t airbrushed that from her CV.
“That makes him seem like a reckless lightweight.”
You must not be that familiar with the guy. He removed all doubt about his idiocy years ago.
I’m hoping Butler runs and wins. She’s less annoying than Schiff, Lee, and Porter
Maybe Newsom figured she’s more electable than those jagoffs
I don't know about reckless, but Christ, the man makes butterfly wings seem like a 50-pound bag of concrete.
"That makes him seem like a reckless lightweight." Now, what other democrat party creep promised to nominate a black woman to an important post? Hmmm, thinking, thinking...well, at least we know that guy will never be called a lightweight, right?
Then there's this: "Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President."
...yeah, folks, chew on that one. Newsome she doesn't consider mentally agile enough to be president. Yet the guy in the White House, him she defends his mental acumen...
"Newsom doesn't seem mentally agile enough to be President."
He seems mentally agile enough to know how to demand a jury trial.
So the Know Nothings just fired their own Speaker of the House a day or two after bringing the country to the edge of a government shutdown. At the same time their presidential front runner has just been found guilty of fraud and is getting gagged by the judge for libeling his Law Secretary in the middle of a trial, while he bitches about not getting a jury trial which he failed to demand.
But for Althouse the big question is: What about Newhouse appointing a Black woman? I suspect tomorrow the ole professor will take on the big question of Commander.
Boy Hispanics sure get screwed by democrats.
How to state, "I'm an idiot." without actually saying it? Read the 3:33 PM post. That guy/gal/it/whatever did it admirably.
America progressing.
If having a black woman in the Senate is truly so "important" to dopes like Newsom, than why isn't it worth affecting the 2024 election?
All of you who are stressing Lee's advanced age: See my update to the post.
My theory is Newsom had intended to appoint Lee to complete the term and he wanted HER to serve as a "caretaker" and leave after someone new won the seat in 2024. Precisely because she was so old, she'd appreciate the honor and be pleased to have a year or so in the Senate and then retire, at the age of 78.
But she didn't take it as an honor. She was insulted. You can't just use the black women that way! She'd be out of Congress altogether then. Her reaction to this affront was to announce her candidacy for the Senate seat and serve until she's 85, and then run again. And again, too. Why shouldn't she serve into her 90s, like the white woman?!
"He was put on the spot by Joy Reid."
When I read that I involuntarily laughed out loud.
Barbara Lee is the kingmaker here. I'll be very surprised if they don't clear the path for her for 2024. She's incredibly important in California Democratic politics.
She's an idiot, a commie, and a monster, but hey, bygones.
She is in good physical shape for 77.
As a former Californian, I love to see Newsom fail. More please!
“My theory is Newsom had intended to appoint Lee to complete the term”
My theory is that Gavin Newsom always wanted to appoint someone other than Barbara Lee. My evidence: In the 2021 interview, Gavin Newsom said he had “multiple names in mind.” To me, that says he wanted it known he wouldn’t be appointing the most obvious Black woman, Lee Also, rather than being out on the spot, I think he came on the Joe Reid show to make that announcement - I see nothing impetuous about it.
Why? In Democratic politics today, appointing a Black woman has become the go to way to minimize complaints from the far left when putting in a moderate.
@Althouse, I think you’re quite right in your analysis at 4:10 am. The political problem for Newsom is that he needs to shore up his support with Hispanics. Black females are the identity group already least likely to vote Republican.
"But she didn't take it as an honor. She was insulted. You can't just use the black women that way! She'd be out of Congress altogether then.
How dare you appoint me Senator of the nation's most populous state!
I'm reserving cautious hope that this represents peak absurdity for 'racial equity and social justice' in the US.
I nominate Newsome for Supreme Court.
Finally figured out that woman debate. Did he grab her by the pussy?
He was able to keep his pledge and still help his buddy Schiff.
As the pastor at my former church once said "I'd rather hire an African-American seven than a White eight".
Butler?
Butlers serve people.
Newsom is white and a democrat.
Newsom is therefor a racist.
I think the meaning is that in one-party California it's becoming difficult to put together the needed coalition. Every move offends some vital group. And no move can be seen as addressing the collapse of San Francisco.
Newsom replaced Kamala Harris with Alex Padilla, who became California's first Hispanic senator. That left Asian Americans as the largest under-represented ethnic group in the state. We've never had a Chinese-American senator.
Yes, Newsom is a lightweight. But he's not senile.
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