{"id":1441288,"date":"2022-04-16T08:15:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T12:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1441288"},"modified":"2022-04-16T08:17:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-16T12:17:51","slug":"maureen-callahan-dianne-feinstein-joe-biden-show-why-we-need-age-limits-for-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maureen-callahan-dianne-feinstein-joe-biden-show-why-we-need-age-limits-for-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Maureen Callahan: Dianne Feinstein, Joe Biden Show Why We Need Age Limits for Politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmaureen-callahan-dianne-feinstein-joe-biden-show-why-we-need-age-limits-for-politicians%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1441288&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Does it shock anyone, really, to learn that 88-year-old veteran US Sen. Dianne Feinstein is exhibiting signs of dementia?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll brace for angry emails from readers who still have landlines, dial-up modems and AOL addresses in making this argument: We\u2019re long overdue for age limits on our legislators.<\/p>\n<p>Commercial airline pilots are forced to retire at age 65. Air traffic controllers must retire at age 56.<\/p>\n<p>Yet we have a 79-year-old in the White House who, on any given day, thinks that his VP is his wife, or that his wife is his sister and his sister is the first lady, or that Michelle Obama is the vice president or that Barack Obama is Donald Trump and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>So easy to get the latter two confused, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>When asked how he\u2019d handle a dispute with his actual vice president, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden told CNN, \u201cI will develop some disease and say I have to resign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wonder where he got that idea?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/2021\/11\/17\/biden-approval-rating-personal-traits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A recent Politico\/Morning Consult poll<\/a> found that 48% of Americans are concerned about Biden\u2019s mental fitness.<\/p>\n<p>So are some of his own staffers, who, according to a September 2021 Politico report, either mute or turn off his live press conferences \u2014 so alarmed are they by the inevitable next malapropism or false claim or thought to nowhere or near-catastrophic foreign policy bungle.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/joe-biden-18.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/joe-biden-18.jpg\" alt=\"President Joe Biden\" class=\"wp-image-21909285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/joe-biden-18.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/joe-biden-18.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/joe-biden-18.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>President Biden is 79 years old. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/dianne-feinstein.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/dianne-feinstein.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Dianne Feinstein\" class=\"wp-image-21909296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/dianne-feinstein.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/dianne-feinstein.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/dianne-feinstein.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>In 2020, The New Yorker reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 88, is exhibiting problems with her memory. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is not a new problem. Strom Thurmond retired at 100 years of age, his complete out-to-lunch-ness an open secret on Capitol Hill. By the end of his second term, Ronald Reagan was falling asleep in cabinet meetings and so inattentive that his aides broached invoking the 25th Amendment with Reagan\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n<p>Four years before a stroke forced him to resign in 1975, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas contemplated retirement because, as he wrote to a friend, \u201cMy ideas are way out of line with current trends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Imagine that. The self-awareness to know one is aging out \u2014 negated by the craven desire for power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe judiciary,\u201d wrote Judge Richard A. Posner, \u201cis the nation\u2019s premier geriatric occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Congress is right there with them. Among our biggest public health crises today is Big Tech, which is deliberately corroding and addicting our youngest and most vulnerable \u2014 not to mention propping up dictators, disseminating all kinds of misinformation, interfering in wars and elections and colonizing space.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"814\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg\" alt=\"Strom Thurmond\" class=\"wp-image-21909335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1628 1628w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1221 1221w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=814 814w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=407 407w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/strom-thurmond.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Strom Thurmond was 100 years old when he retired from the Senate. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Who really thinks that a cohort of 70- and 80-somethings \u2014 led by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Grassley, Mitch McConnell, Pat Leahy, Jim Inhofe and Richard Shelby \u2014 are best equipped to deal with this?<\/p>\n<p>Pelosi, Grassley and Shelby are fast approaching age 90. It\u2019s enough already. It\u2019s not healthy \u2014 or fair to the generations behind them \u2014 for the nation to remain in these arthritic clutches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see in the U.S. Congress people who\u2019ve been there 20, 30, 40 years,\u201d Barack Obama said in 2017. \u201cAnd because they\u2019re still there, they\u2019re blocking the 25- or 30- or 35-year-old who is more of their time and could be more innovative and creative [in] solving the problems we face today, rather than the problems we faced 35 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/nancy-pelosi-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/nancy-pelosi-1.jpg\" alt=\"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\" class=\"wp-image-21909343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/nancy-pelosi-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/nancy-pelosi-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/nancy-pelosi-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>A YouGov poll said 58 percent of Americans support age limits for politicians. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As far back as 2020, The New Yorker reported that Dianne Feinstein had been \u201cseriously struggling\u201d with her memory \u2014 <em>for years<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That piece led with Feinstein asking Twitter\u2019s then-CEO Jack Dorsey, at a Senate Judiciary Hearing, a lengthy, detailed question in which she quoted from one of President Trump\u2019s tweets. Dorsey responded \u2014 and Feinstein followed up by asking him the exact same question again, verbatim, as though it were the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s piece in the San Francisco Chronicle is only more alarming in that multiple people \u2014 fellow Democratic colleagues and Feinstein\u2019s own staffers \u2014 are now going public. And they\u2019re dispensing with customary double-speak and politesse. \u201cIt\u2019s bad,\u201d one Democratic senator said of Feinstein\u2019s forgetfulness, \u201cand it\u2019s getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A YouGov poll from January shows that 58% of Americans want an age limit for elected officials \u2014 forcible retirement at age 70. If something like that passed now, 71% of US senators would be out of a job.<\/p>\n<p>At least they\u2019d have their dignity. Then again, in our national politics, that\u2019s never counted for much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does it shock anyone, really, to learn that 88-year-old veteran US Sen. Dianne Feinstein is exhibiting signs of dementia? I\u2019ll brace for angry emails<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":1443673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1443673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}