California’s voice

IN THE POST-9/11 era of warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention and executive branch overreach, Californians need a representative in the U.S. Senate who can keep the pressure on the Bush administration while still reaching across the aisle for workable approaches to the nation’s most complex problems. On most days, Dianne Feinstein fills the bill.

A member of both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, Feinstein is a senator who does her homework and criticizes U.S. policy constructively. As a pragmatic centrist, she’s not always the first to speak up, nor the loudest among Senate Democrats, but her voice is often the strongest because of the respect she’s accorded in Washington. California needs that voice for another term.

Feinstein was at her best this year on domestic surveillance. She sought to reiterate that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs all domestic surveillance and requires a warrant from the FISA court, while moving to grant the National Security Agency more time to act without a court order in an emergency. Unlike some of her colleagues, after working hard on a sound compromise, she cast a principled vote against the final version of the detainee bill.

That said, there are times when Feinstein seems more concerned about appearing centrist than sensible. She has been a persistent proponent of a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. She favored bills banning distribution of personal information over the Internet. She voted to cut legal immigration a decade ago, was slow to embrace the comprehensive immigration reform that California needs so badly and struck some worryingly nativist notes when opposing the idea of foreign-born Americans becoming president.

She is capable of growth. An opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement, she voted in favor of free trade with Central America and “fast track” trade promotion authority.

It is testimony to Feinstein’s popularity that Republicans have put up only token opposition: former state Sen. Richard Mountjoy, a principal architect behind Proposition 187. We hope, and expect, that Feinstein’s next term will be marked by independent thinking and action in the best interests of California and the nation.

*

On the Web: For all of The Times endorsements, see latimes.com/endorsements.