I want to be sensitive to her family situation and her personal situation, Durbin said on CNN. “I want to treat Dianne Feinstein fairly. Dick Durbin, by no means a radical in his caucus and Feinstein’s successor as the top Democrat of the powerful Judiciary Committee, made clear this past weekend how much the narrative had shifted. Rather than being M.I.A., she is now seen as A.W.O.L., even among her apologists. Her and her office are providing a stunning demonstration in how to soil an inevitable obituary with tales of missteps rather than of purpose, and how to willfully ignore the well-meaning nudges that have been coming for years now. If anything, Feinstein is fast becoming a masterclass in how to spoil a legacy, one that should be taught in books about leadership for decades. To say Feinstein, now 89, is facing mounting pressure to resign would be to undersell the swelling frustration even among her biggest fans, both in progressive circles and in the Senate Dining Room.

It was one of the string of firsts that would mark a remarkable career in politics stretching from her first appointment in 1960 to the California Women’s Parole Board until now, when she is the oldest member of the Senate-and, owing to challenging health these days, its most debated figure.

For Feinstein, the circumstances of her promotion felt deeply unrewarding, but she would go on to win the seat on her own and serve for 10 years. Before reaching Milk’s office, he had killed Mayor George Moscone, leaving a vacuum that demanded Feinstein immediately rise to become the first female to lead San Francisco. The assassin had dodged metal detectors at City Hall by climbing through a first-floor window. “But you know, it was the first person I’d ever seen shot to death, and you know when they’re dead.” “I walked into one and found Harvey Milk, put my finger in a bullet hole trying to get a pulse,” Feinstein said in a 2017 interview, one of the few times she has spoken of the day that instantly made her into a national figure and one whose star has never dimmed.

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