Criticism of the aging Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is mounting, even from her Democratic colleagues in Congress. But CNN’s Dana Bash wondered if some of the criticism was not wholly based on her advanced age and declining health, but on her gender.

At the end of the report on Inside Politics, Bash asked CNN reporter Isaac Dovere point blank if Feinstein being “not a male” played a factor in so many people expressing frustration over her remaining in her Senate seat.

Bash: I’ve covered Congress for a long time. I’ve watched Senator Strom Thurmond [R-SC] with his staff basically acting as senator, other senators who aged that were male.

Dovere: Yeah.

Bash: How much of this do you think is that she is not a male?

Dovere: Well, that’s certainly part of what’s going on here, and one encounter that I had over the course of the reporting of the story was with [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA],  I was walking down the hall with her. She saw another reporter who had written a story about Feinstein and she said, ‘Think about all the people you’ve seen, all the men who been in bad shape. I’m not gonna name them, but you know who they are.’ And, so, that is definitely a factor here. Feinstein is an older senator, one of the women who was elected early in the senate, and now is reaching the end of her career in the senate. That’s part of what’s going on here.

Senator Feinstein, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 — the “Year of the Woman,” as Bash mentioned — turns 90 tomorrow. The late Sen. Thurmond retired from the senate in January 2003, one month after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Watch the clip above via CNN

The post CNN’s Dana Bash Asks if Some Criticism of Elderly Feinstein Is Because She’s ‘Not a Male’: ‘That’s Certainly Part of What’s Going on Here’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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