The fastest way to move around City Hall is to take the back stairways located at the four corners of the rotunda. They lack the pomposity of the great central staircase and, for city employees who drink themselves through the day at neighborhood bars, can’t match the elevators for ease and comfort. The stairs are somewhat obscure and not that popular.

When I worked for the City in the late 70’s I would encounter the Mayor on those backstairs. She came at me full throttle surrounded by a cadre of factotums who held aloft the collective ego to which she gave face. The Mayor always looked squarely at me as if I was her best friend and/or she was really counting on my vote. Then, like the bullets that propelled her into office, she’d fire her greeting at me. Before I could answer she’d be past me.

It was always so sudden and unexpected. We never had the chance to engage in meaningful conversation.

Today the senior Senator from California is back at it as the lead Democrat in the Supreme Court Nomination Hearings. Just like at the Kavanaugh Hearings where she waited until it was too late to drop her bombshell evidence, she’s doing what she does best: putting the “pose” back in opposition.

Every Senator on the Committee knows they’re participating in a farce. Each Democrat should be spending their entire 30 minutes railing against Mitch McConnell, his devious tactics and the sham that they are participating in–but respect SOOO much.

A healthy dose of anti-McConnell rant could make a difference in a tight race. Whether the Republican Media Moguls would allow it into the national news coverage is questionable. But just to have on the record that Democrats tried something organized and well-orchestrated would be refreshing.

Instead they take their lead from the Ranking Minority Member and show their love for hallowed, ineffective traditions. As Republicans play them for the fools they are.

While the Republican agenda moves briskly forward Democrats remain mired in their muddled consciences. Of course the GOP agenda neatly dovetails with every Senators’ sweetheart deals and the wealth they attain from insider trading so no Solon is really complaining. Like the House of Lords, the Senate needs to be abolished. It’s outdated and useless.

Her former Senate colleague, the author Barbara Boxer, has memorialized Dianne’s career in one of her Cartland-esque novellas. How Blind Was My Trust is a hilarious recount of a prim and proper Senatress who observes to the T every rule of propriety and decorum the August Senate can muster. And we know how rigorous those standards can be.

Come to find out, her investment manager of a husband somehow made bazillions during her tenure as a public servant. Talk about a head scratcher, no one saw that one coming!

When jerry-rigged, artificial rules take precedence over moral and ethical decency there’s something wrong.

In her long career of going along and getting along to maintain the status quo, Senator Fine-by-me-stein has earned many kudos. No doubt there will be more.

She’s currently in line to become the first Chair of the Judiciary Committee to assume the position after embalmment. She’s that entrenched.