It's Monday, October 2nd, 2023. I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily

analysis of news and events from a Christian world view. Just shortly after midnight on Friday

morning, Diane Feinstein, the senior United States senator from California died at age

90. Now this is a big news story, but it's not exactly unexpected. Over the course of

the last couple of years, there's been a notable decline in Senator Feinstein's health,

also in her mental acuity. There have been even people within her party who had called

for her to retire, and her concession was to say that she would not run for re-election

in the 2024 election cycle there in California. That's at the stage for what would be then

an open seat, according to that theory, if Diane Feinstein had lived through the remainder

of her term, and that open seat is already hotly contested in the only place that it really

matters, which is in the Democratic Party and in anticipation of a Democratic primary.

Now that entire picture is scrambled, and it's going to be very interesting to see what

happens because California's very democratic, very liberal governor, Gavin Newsom, had pledged

to appoint a black woman who would be the first black woman United States Senator from

the state of California. Now there you have identity politics and political ideology

all mixed together in what could also be described as a political payoff, but it really

does restrict the governor. He has restricted himself. You play identity politics. Let's

put it this way. If you live by identity politics, you'll die by identity politics. And

Gavin Newsom is now in a genuinely excruciating political situation because if he does name

an African American woman as an acting Senator, that is to hold the position until there

can be an election in 2024, he will be seen to have given that candidate a sizable

advantage in the Democratic nomination race for 2024. He's in a very tight position.

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