Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator from California, has not bothered to run much of a campaign to win her third full term in the Senate. She leads her token Republican opposition, Richard Mountjoy, 59 percent to 33 percent in a recent poll and will coast to a landslide victory. She has spent more time helping other Democratic candidates than campaigning for herself. Dianne Feinstein is a California institution, easily the state’s most popular politician and one of the very few (our governor for the foreseeable future might be the only other) that can attract significant support from the other party. In an era when the Senate is partisan, divisive and fiercely polarized, Feinstein is one of the few senators who can still forge a bipartisan consensus on issues that transcend party lines.

A 1955 Stanford graduate, Feinstein distinguished herself as mayor of San Francisco for nine years before winning election to the Senate in 1992, in a special election to replace Pete Wilson, who became governor. She won in her own right in 1994, 2000 and is poised to win a third and probably final term this election season, keeping both California’s Senate seats firmly in the hands of Democrats for another four years. Feinstein’s most important role in the Senate has been as the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She is a strong, resolute defender of the right to choose when the nation’s leadership, both Democrats and Republicans, are trending pro-life, considering South Dakota’s law banning most abortions and the Democratic Party’s embrace of pro-life Bob Casey’s campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania. She has consistently earned 100 percent ratings from Planned Parenthood, and 0 percent from the National Right to Life Committee. The Senate needs statesmen and stateswomen like Feinstein to defend the right to choose from constant infringements and restrictions, especially when confirming judges. She voted against the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Outside of abortion-related issues, she has made her mark as a senator capable of compromising and negotiating with Republicans. She voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which much of her party was against, and supported the original Iraq War resolution. The senator has since said, as many senators have, that she was misled by the evidence presented and supports a no-confidence measure targeting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. She has joined with many Democrats and some Republicans in urging the president to adopt a timetable calling for withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2007, rather than immediate withdrawal, as some Democrats are urging. Feinstein also supported the bill funding the construction of a fence on the border while supporting an amnesty program, a pragmatic approach taking ideas from both sides.

Feinstein has spoken to current Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and wants him to forge a bipartisan consensus on major issues to end the era of wedge issues that has been the hallmark of the Republican Congress. This kind of sentiment has been rare in Congress the past few years, and some in the Democratic Party, namely Representative Henry Waxman, seem to be in no mood to change it. The Democrats would then be squandering an opportunity to put policy and legislation in the public interest above partisan politics.

Stuart Baimel writes for both the Review and the Progressive. He can be contacted at sbaimel@stanford.edu