Giving her recognition she deserves: Dianne Feinstein funeral eclipsed by Washington chaos

WASHINGTON − Amid last weekend’s chaos in Washington, Rep. Nancy Pelosi boarded a military plane to accompany the body of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein back to California.

One of the most groundbreaking women in American politics was taking home another trailblazer. An especially poignant and historic moment, which political science professor Wendy Schiller doesn’t think got enough attention. Instead, news media focused Saturday on whether the federal government would shut down and if House Republicans would depose their speaker.

“It’s an extraordinary moment in American political history for women,” said Schiller, who teaches at Brown University. “Not a lot covering that.”

Feinstein, the longest-serving female senator in U.S. history, will be memorialized Thursday at a service on the front steps of San Francisco City Hall.

It’s a fitting location to honor Feinstein whose string of firsts included being the first woman elected as mayor of San Francisco, her hometown.

But the event will be more lowkey than if Feinstein had lain in state in the Capitol, an honor not yet given to a female member of the House or Senate.

Alaska’s Don Young, who was the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. House when he died in 2022, was the most recent lawmaker to lay in state under the Capitol Rotunda.

Decisions about how a dignitary is memorialized after their passing are deeply personal ones for families.

Feinstein lay in state in San Francisco City Hall, where Pelosi will speak Thursday, as will Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also from California, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Why are flags at half mast today?

The country is nonetheless in mourning over the passing of a great lawmaker. President Joe Biden will give his tribute through recorded remarks.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday it’s not unusual for the vice president to attend a funeral instead of the president. And Biden’s recorded remarks will demonstrate the respect he has for Feinstein, she said.

“He thought that she was an effective elected official,” Jean-Pierre said. “She was a historic trail blazer and they worked together on many, many issues across her career.”

Jean-Pierre emphasized one of Feinstein’s most significant legislative accomplishments, a 1994 ban on assault weapons.

The first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feinstein also led the investigation into U.S. intelligence agencies for torture and abuse of prisoners in the aftermath of 9/11. The committee’s 2014 report concluded that so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques such as waterboarding played no role in thwarting terrorist plots or capturing al-Qaeda leaders − including Osama Bin Laden before his death at the hands of U.S. special forces in Pakistan three years earlier.

In addition, Feinstein championed federal protections for same-sex marriage, was an early leader on HIV/AIDS, fought for reproductive rights and played an important role in safeguarding California’s public lands, among other accomplishments over her more than three decades in the Senate and more than five decades of public service.

While Feinstein was a huge figure in San Francisco, she never sought much national press attention, said Georgetown University professor Michele Swers, who has written extensively on women in Congress.

“She preferred to do her work behind the scene,” Swers said. “When they talk about show horses and work horses in the Senate, she was most definitely a work horse.”

Feinstein occupied a position of honor and respect in the Senate for most of her tenure, said Ross Baker, a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She was grounded in moderation at a time when lawmakers were beginning to take extreme positions.

How did Dianne Feinstein die?

But her lifetime achievements have been overshadowed lately by her health struggles, Baker and other experts said.

She died on Friday morning at her home in Washington, D.C., her office said.

Feinstein, who at 90 was the oldest sitting senator, resisted calls from progressive lawmakers to resign despite being sidelined for various health issues and sometimes becoming confused when speaking publicly.

“This long exit was really the problem,” Baker said.

Steven S. Smith, professor emeritus of political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said Feinstein’s death might have had more of an impact if it hadn’t been so long anticipated and hadn’t come during such a busy news cycle.

“The fact that she was missing in action for so long, that part of her last year has simply dominated coverage of her,” he said. “If you combine that with the fact that there are these other major events, she’s not getting the attention that she surely would’ve received normally.”

Feinstein’s colleagues have tried to get her the recognition they think she deserves.

Among the many emotional tributes offered on the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she had been pained in recent months by the “grossly unfair attacks on a woman who was in failing health.”

“And I think for some who would focus on that,” Murkowski said, “they would fail to appreciate what this extraordinary woman, what this extraordinary leader had contributed not only to the Senate but, again, to her State and to her country.”

Analysis I met Dianne Feinstein at the 1984 DNC convention. Since then, she's changed politics for women

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dianne Feinstein funeral eclipsed by Washington chaos