George Skelton: Civil Feinstein delivered results but irked ideologues

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California's most accomplished senator, became an anachronism. She practiced civility and compromised with the other side.

That's how the state's first female senator has gotten so many important things done in an increasingly antagonistic political world.

It's the way major legislation used to be passed before social media and cable "news" provided wide-ranging platforms for demagogues and nurtured the ideological extremes on both sides.

Now, civility and compromise are considered too old-fashioned, particularly among many younger political activists.

Republican voters in California never have really accepted the Democrat, who's California's longest-serving