Does Feinstein's Death Thicken The POTUS Plot?

It’s Friday afternoon. I need to get out from in front of the computer and cut the lawn. But I just read an article at Red State that raises some interesting questions.

There Is Wild Speculation on Who Will Replace Sen. Feinstein — Why I Don't Think It Will Happen

Before we get to the wild speculation, here’s the background.

It seems that Gavin Newsom promised to appoint a Black woman to fill Feinstein’s seat if it came to that—to needing to fill Feinstein’s seat in the Senate. Jennifer O’Connell wrote about this earlier today: Who Will Gavin Newsom Choose to Replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein?

Despite the fact that Sen. Dianne Feinstein's death announcement is mere hours old, you know the halls of Sacramento are abuzz with who California Governor Gavin Newsom will choose to replace her in the Senate. When the Democrat Mafia were attempting to send Feinstein into an early retirement in 2023, heavy speculation and promotion on her replacement was given to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). 

During the 2021 Recall election, Newsom painted himself into a corner by declaring he would appoint a Black woman when Feinstein retired. Then, when Newsom was called on it and asked how this would affect the campaigns of Democrat congresspersons Adam Schiff and Katie Porter, who are clawing for the seat in 2024, Newsom made noises that it would be an "interim" appointment. Somehow Lee took umbrage over this, because she did not want to be seen as a token, writing in a Sept. 10 statement:

So here’s the wild speculation: Does Kama Sutra qualify as a Black woman? She is, after all, half Black—whatever that means. It would appear that if Kama Sutra resigned as VP Newsom could fulfill his promise. That’s the prediction that another Red Stater, Scott Hounsell, made not too long ago:

My colleague Scott Hounsell here at RedState, who co-hosts the RedState VIP Gold Show on Wednesday nights at 8:00 p.m., right here on this site, made a prediction a month or so ago about this very subject; he startled everyone who was watching.

Scott boldly proclaimed that Kamala Harris, the current Vice President of the United States -- the quota pick by Joe Biden for veep, after he said he would pick a woman and someone of color -- would step down from her position to be appointed a United States Senator.

The author of this article maintains that no way would Kama Sutra miss out on the chance to be POTUS—Zhou could drop dead at any moment, could be 25thed, could be impeached, could resign, and there she’d be: Kama Sutra on the spot. Just in time for all the STHTF in politics, foreign policy, and economics. OTOH, a US senate gig is so comfy (as she already knows), and there’s quite a bit of time before the next election. Why not go for safe? She knows that the Dems and the Powers behind the scene want Zhou gone for Election 2024, and that means that they want her gone, too. Why not go for safe?

Well, who knows? It takes two to tango, and we don’t really know whether Boy Gavin or Kama Sutra are inclined to tango. But, supposing that they did tango, what would that do to presidential politics? The problem for the Dems has always been that, while they’re increasingly desperate to dump Zhou, they’re deathly afraid of putting Kama Sutra in the Oval Office. Wouldn’t her resignation to take a spot in the senate solve that problem? Not really.

As indicated above, there are multiple plausible ways that Zhou could be removed, at this point. If Kama Sutra did step down to take the senate gig, what would happen in the eventuality of the office of POTUS becoming vacant? The VP is in line to become POTUS in that case. But the office of VP would also be vacant, so that means Speaker Kevin would become POTUS by action of the Constitution.

Now, you might say, as many do—despite my cautions—that the Dems would simply slip one of their own into the vacant VP slot as soon as Kama Sutra stepped down. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way. A VP vacancy can only be filled via a majority vote of both houses of Congress. Look it up. And there’s no requirement that the vacancy actually be filled on any sort of timeline. The Republicans have the whip hand here.

In the past we might have asked, What could the Dems promise Kama Sutra to get her out of the way? In the current situation, the question could be reversed: If Newsom is willing to offer her the Feinstein seat, what would they have to offer her to stay—and prevent at least part of the mess? The answer is, we’re going to find out pretty soon. Either way, the Dems will remain between a rock and a hard place.

One final consideration, or question: Would the Uniparty—Dems and GOPers together, the DC Establishment—see this as an opportunity to swing some sort of deal to thwart Trump? Something like this: Let Speaker Kev move to the Oval Office, with an understanding on who would be VP. Yes, that seems far fetched, but … Trump Redux is the stuff of nightmares for the Uniparty.