Just remarkable how "old person won't retire" has driven history for the last 15 years.
Kennedy not resigning after brain cancer diagnosis -> Scott Brown
Feinstein staying on past prime and bungling hearings -> Kavanaugh/Barrett
RBG
Biden
Yeah, it's a little much for a line in one post, but my take there: Feinstein was old and addled. She bungled the line on Barrett ("the dogma lives loudly within you") and made her a right-wing Catholic superstar. She bungled the Kavanaugh and Barrett hearings bc she was so old and incompetent.
On ACB probably no difference she could really make. Kav was deeply vulnerable at the point when the committee felt the need to actually let Blasey Ford testify. Better politicking could have sunk him.
Even if you think that, and even if you think Feinstein was load bearing, there's an endless pool of FedSoc alternatives waiting, the next one in line would have gotten the nom.
At the time people thought if they could delay until the midterms maybe Dems will take the Senate, but that didn't happen
Feinstein was kinda load bearing with Kavanaugh because the initial allegation was sent to her, but the counterfactual there is probably allegations come out well before the hearings > an equivalent FedSoc ghoul is quietly swapped in (or, Republicans ignore them just like they did anyway)
