You know, it really makes you wonder, or perhaps simply confirms what we already know: that high-ranking officials in any government (or church, or business) are often puppets of their own handlers. Advisors will filter their information streams with a carefully-curated list of talking points, PR flacks will handle the public-facing messages, secretaries, ghostwriters, et. al. will handle the internal messages, decrees, statements, etc.<p>Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to a high-ranking prelate in the papal apartments, was known at least once to remark, "My authority ends at that door." And it's true, I mean, aren't Popes, and democratically-elected politicians as well, supposed to be servants of the people? They should be doing our bidding, and hopefully they've put in place a staff that will prop up that public will, even after the official herself has lost the plot.
Rolling Stone is using the royal "we" in the headline to refer to "the public" and not "reporters and newsmedia," whom the piece shows have played an active and knowing role in concealing Feinstein's mental incapacity.
> The seniority system in Congress<p>This is just the democratic party's own rules. The republicans don't run their committees this way. It could change whenever they wanted to.