Dianne Feinstein was the kind of dedicated, workaholic, outspoken public servant who married like all our elected officials would be.

She put the public interest first, far ahead of her own political self-interest.

To quote a tired cliché, Feinstein was a workhorse, not a show horse. But for most of her career, she was powerful and articulate enough to also display charisma and cachet.

She was single-minded in her determination to solve problems, but she was willing to make compromises to achieve something. She was principled but pragmatic, combative but civilized and had lost popularity in today’s polarized politics.

Not everyone liked Feinstein’s politics, even though she was elected to the U.S. Senate six times and was the longest-serving senator in California history when she died Friday at age 90. She also served as a senator longer than any other woman, more than thirty years.

Some liberals thought she was too conservative, and conservatives thought she was too liberal. She was virtually a centrist, an endangered species in today’s extremist, gridlocked administration.

Politics is tribal now, says Jerry Roberts, a biographer of Feinstein. She didn’t belong to anyone’s tribe. She was a moderate, pragmatic problem solver.

Regardless of Feinstein’s politics, her legislative talent and dedication to problem solving made her a role model for voters of all political shades, or should have, if some were not blinded by ideological purity.

A brief conversation with Feinstein told me a lot about her. We were both standing by a bookshelf at the Sacramento airport after a campaign trip for the 1990 governor. She was looking for a book to read and relax.

I said Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry was a page turner and a fascinating story of the Old West. That sounds good, she said, and picked up the thick paperback. I was immediately impressed that this sophisticated, cosmopolitan woman wanted to read about cowboys.

The former Democratic mayor from San Francisco lost the race for governor to Republican Senator Pete Wilson. But two years later, Feinstein and Democratic Rep. Barbara Boxer became the first California women elected to the U.S. Senate.

Trailblazer is the noun most often used to characterize Feinstein as a trailblazer for women. She was the first female mayor of San Francisco.

Feinstein inspired women to pursue high career goals in politics and is credited with mentoring many. Among them is former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi

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from San Francisco, Boxer from neighboring Marin County, Vice President Kamala Harris, former San Francisco District Attorney and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.

She showed that women could play in the big leagues, Kounalakis

say

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She embodied women’s power in the political arena, said Susan Kennedy, Feinstein’s former communications director and a top Democratic aide. Gray Davis and the Republican government. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

She paved the way for women to be equal to men, even when wearing high heels. She was more powerful than most men. She encouraged women not to be just symbols.

Feinstein was, in my opinion, the best California senator in history. This is not only due to its long lifespan. It’s because of the power she has built, her legislative effectiveness and her overall body of work.

Feinstein was brave.

She spent years fighting the CIA and the intelligence community to expose the un-American torture of terrorist suspects.

She took on the gun lobby in 1994 and maneuvered through Congress a 10-year ban on the sale of assault weapons. That was during a very competitive re-election campaign. And the gun ban probably cost her votes in rural California.

An unpleasant event in Chico is etched in my memory. Gun rights advocates protested the senators’ bill. A man in jeans and a little girl stood on the sidewalk. As Feinstein got out of a car, the man took the child by her hand, knelt and pointed his finger at the senator, about within arm’s reach.

Look, he told the girl. You don’t want to grow up like this. In this father’s twisted mind, a female United States Senator was not an appropriate role model for his daughter.

Many years later, Feinstein was ridiculed in her hometown for the sin of hoping that President Trump would get his act together without class. We became so polarized that it was taboo to wish an American president well. But that was Feinstein’s bourgeois nature.

I just hope he has the ability to learn and change. And if he does that, he can be a good president. And that’s my hope, she told the high-pitched Commonwealth Club of San Francisco in 2017.

People booed.

“I need to be able to get things done,” she replied. You have to work with people. And a punch in the nose doesn’t help.

Collaborative politics worked for Feinstein and for California. The proof is in her legislation creating the Mojave Desert and Death Valley National Parks. And it’s the years-long struggle to get more water for San Joaquin Valley farms that convinced environmentalists.

She was remarkable in her ability to look at problems and find the solutions needed, said Bill Carrick, her longtime political adviser. Whether those solutions were good or bad for her politically did not matter much to her.

Actually, she didn’t get much [politically] out of water and desert protection.

Towards the end, Feinstein became physically vulnerable. So? Something FDR. But her cognitive ability also deteriorated noticeably.

There was a special chorus of libs for her to resign. The senator declined because he wanted to serve out her term. No one got hurt because she persisted, except probably Feinstein. Her dignity and reputation suffered. She deserved better.

Looking ahead, political journalist and former Feinstein press secretary Gil Duran says: We need many more leaders with this kind of grit, grit and dedication.

But it’s unlikely we’ll see another Feinstein for very long, if ever. She was unique.