John Phillips: The only cognitive test that matters is the one on Election Day
California’s senior United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was recently released from a San Francisco hospital after being diagnosed with a rough case of shingles, has announced that she will not be seeking another six-year term in Congress’ upper chamber.
Feinstein, at 89 years of age, is currently the oldest member of the Senate, and has been the subject of any number of news articles that have questioned her mental fitness for public office.
The most recent wave of speculation about Feinstein’s fitness began in the spring of 2022, when four senators, including three Democrats and a member of the California House delegation, anonymously told Feinstein’s hometown paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, that her memory was fading to the point where it was difficult for her to do her job.
Recently, Feinstein’s longtime friend and colleague, former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, even confirmed that Feinstein’s short-term memory is gone. Proving once again that — to paraphrase Oscar Wilde — in Washington, a friend is someone who stabs you in the front.
Boxer told Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson, “In the moment, when she’s talking to you, she’s with you. Then, there’s this short-term memory loss.”
Barbara often told her friend Dianne that life after the Senate was good, and that Dianne would respond that she loved the job, it was a mission, and she didn’t want to leave.
Yeesh. It looks like you can add Boxer to the list of people who threw an old Senate buddy under the electric-no-emissions bus.
Talk of cognitive fitness has also come up in the lead up to the 2024 presidential race.
In announcing her run for president, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has even called for politicians over the age of 75 to take “mandatory mental competency tests.”
In her announcement, Haley said, “We’re ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past. And we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future.”
It was not lost on anyone who follows politics that Haley was making a clear reference to both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, not to mention senior senators like Feinstein, too.
In response, First Lady Jill Biden called the idea of mental competency tests administered to politicians “ridiculous” during an interview with CNN.
But, come on, her own husband is so out of it he can’t even remember whose speeches he’s plagiarized.
Feinstein was equally defiant in her response to all of the criticism, saying in a written statement, “I remain committed to do what I said I would when I was re-elected in 2018: fight for Californians, especially on the economy and the key issues for California of water and fire … While I have focused for much of the past year on my husband’s health and ultimate passing, I have remained committed to achieving results and I’d put my record up against anyone’s.”
See, she’s still with it enough to know which issues matter to Californians.
To a certain extent, what Jill Biden and Dianne Feinstein are saying is correct.
If politicians don’t possess the cognitive skills to do their job, you shouldn’t anonymously leak hit pieces on them, or force them to whip out a No. 2 pencil and take a test. Voters should make that determination after a vigorous and robust campaign.
Plus, even if they have lost a step or 10, they still might be better than the alternative.
As a voter, I would still much prefer a severely diminished Dianne Feinstein to a fully functioning Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, Congresswoman Katie Porter, D-Irvine, or Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, any day of the week.
Schiff is only 62, but his memory is also suspect. For years he claimed to have evidence in hand of Trump colluding with Russia; now he can’t remember where he left it.
Interestingly enough, if Congresswoman Lee, who turns 77 this summer, ends up replacing Feinstein in the Senate, she too would be an octogenarian senator.
How will we determine if she’s fit to serve?
Easy — voters will make that call when they go to the ballot box.
That is the only test that matters.
John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM 790.