The gerontocracy protects its own

For her part, Pelosi deemed it “unconscionable” that Feinstein was “subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.”

In part, Pelosi is practicing the same sort of class solidarity that helped catapult both her and Feinstein, two trust-fund daughters of big-city mayors, to the top of California politics. But if you think about it, she’s really just protecting her own kind — a decaying congressional vanguard that she believes deserves wealth, privilege, and power beyond accountability.

Our patricians are offensively old. President Joe Biden turns 80 this year, but this senility crisis is no partisan phenomenon. Were he to run for the presidency again and win, Donald Trump would be 78 at the start of his hypothetical second term. The problem is worse, however, deeper in the swamp. More than half of the Senate consists of senior citizens. They have little to fear about the $20 trillion in debt that they have helped amass, and most of them are very wealthy. Independent of her recently deceased husband, who left behind a billion dollars, Feinstein somehow managed to convert her career in public service into a personal net worth of nearly $100 million. Like Pelosi, a fellow multimillionaire, Feinstein has drawn fire for using her public post to line her own personal pockets.