WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was on the phone last week, happily talking to one of Congress' most conservative members, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Rocklin).
Just the day before, Feinstein had come under attack as a liberal at a California debate featuring three Republicans competing to become her opponent in November. No matter. Now she was planning strategy with one of her ideological opposites, a lawmaker who opposes gun control and normal trade relations with China, two issues that Feinstein supports.
Feinstein and Doolittle are working together to promote legislation to clean up Lake Tahoe. Her call to Doolittle is emblematic of how California's senior senator--facing no major Democratic opposition in next Tuesday's primary but looking ahead to November--plans to cast herself as a moderate who can work with Republicans as well as Democrats.
Since her election to the Senate in 1992, Feinstein has established an image for herself as "one of the best bridges in the Senate between Democrats and the majority GOP," as Congressional Quarterly's "Politics in America" put it.
"I'm not an ideologue," Feinstein, 66, said in a recent interview.
She has joined with Republicans in pushing a constitutional amendment granting rights to crime victims. She worked with Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on anti-gang legislation. And she ran afoul of the American Civil Liberties Union for supporting a constitutional amendment to prohibit desecration of the flag--the only Democrat on the Judiciary Committee to do so.
Feinstein's independent streak extended to her dealings with President Clinton. She pushed to censure the president for his conduct in the Monica S. Lewinsky affair, although she ultimately voted with Democrats to acquit the president during his impeachment trial.
Riordan Expects to Back Feinstein
While he has yet to formally endorse her, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican, said it was a safe bet he would again cross party lines to support Feinstein's reelection. And his backing, he said, was not so much based on her positions as on her approach to politics.
"I think people make the mistake of [asking], 'Do you agree on issues?' " Riordan said. "Really what you want in a president, a senator or whatever is a leader. A problem solver. The ideologues are irrelevant. In that regard, I give her a triple A plus," Riordan said.
