...Proxy voting -- empowering members to designate a colleague to vote on their behalf -- was adopted in early 2020 as an emergency measure over Republican opposition in response to the deadly COVID-19 global pandemic spreading largely unchecked....

...At a time when a Speaker would ideally like to have the chance to guarantee the votes and backing of absent members, he's given away one of the best tools a Speaker had to nail down votes of the ill, the absent, the traveling, the unreliable, and those distracted by other ambitions. It could end up costing him....

...Proxy voting is currently not permitted in the Senate for roll call votes, only during committee business. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Senate searched for ways to continue operating amid social distancing and other health precautions, Senators Rob Portman (R-68) and Richard Durbin (D-79) introduced a resolution allowing the use of proxy voting due to the emergency. The resolution was not agreed to.
[...]
Pairing relies on both precedent and senatorial courtesy. The practice is permitted by Senate precedents, but no senator is required to pair with an absent colleague and, therefore, is extending a courtesy to the absent member.

"I have no intention of being the mother-in-law in the kitchen saying, 'My son doesn't like the stuffing that way' "

Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Dean Phillips (Minn.) called on Feinstein, 89, to step down on Wednesday over her prolonged absence from the upper chamber due to her health.
[...]
"It's interesting to me. I don't know what political agendas are at work that are going after Sen. Feinstein in that way. I've never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way," Pelosi told reporters, whose comments came shortly before Khanna called on Feinstein to step down.
[...]
"Both things can be true," said Tracy Sefl, a prominent Democratic consultant. "There is a real and pervasive double standard for women leaders. And the distinguished senator indeed recognizes the consequence of her presence and votes, evidenced by her asking for a temporary replacement on the Judiciary Committee."

....Do female politicians face unfair double standards and increased scrutiny? Of course they do! But cynically weaponizing the very real sexism that women in politics face to defend Feinstein's stubborn decision to cling to power is appalling....

History becomes legend, legends become myth. So goes the popular saying by literary legend JRR Tolkien. In the world of the mainstream media, with the passage of time, truth becomes lies, fiction becomes fact, journalists become a joke and when enough time has passed, 'legendary' journalists turn into something more. They become a meme. Such is the story of The Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi....