So, Rep. Adam Schiff of Pasadena wants to be a senator. He announced his bid on Thursday, making him the second high profile candidate for the seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein, who is 89, hasn’t said one way or another if she intends to run for re-election next year. She reportedly has said she may not make a decision either way until 2024.

Already in the running is fellow Southern California Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine, who is running on her record of … uh, fundraising, I guess.

Porter, a former student of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is basically Elizabeth Warren minus lying about being Native American. She’s the most left-wing of the candidates so far (until Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland jumps in).

By contrast, Schiff, who has been in office since 2001, has amassed a significant record — of blunder and just all-around awfulness.

Along with Feinstein, he voted for the Iraq war, setting off a chain of events that would kill hundreds of thousands of people, traumatize many more, displace millions and create a power vacuum that would boost Iranian influence and give rise to ISIS.

I’m sure the dead are all super appreciative he now regrets that error.

Schiff also voted for the Patriot Act, which unleashed an aggressive surveillance state and trampled on the civil liberties of Americans. You might remember some of the greatest hits of the Patriot Act, including federal agents demanding library records to see what no-good awful books people were reading, then imposing gag orders on librarians who thought that was all a bit much.

Some historical revisionists like to act like Congress members just had to vote for these things, but Barbara Lee, incidentally, voted against both of these things.

But OK, some might say, those were in the past.

There’s a statute of limitations on horrible votes in Congress which unleash waves of terror, kill hundreds of thousands of people and trample the civil liberties of Americans.

Alright, for the sake of argument, fine.

Most recently, Schiff and his staff have emerged in the Twitter Files for repeatedly trying to get Twitter to delete and block things they didn’t like, efforts that Twitter employees actually pushed back on. He’s a Twitter Karen. Do we need a jawboning Twitter Karen in the Senate?

Indeed, Schiff’s tolerance for people he doesn’t like has often resulted in liberal pushback.

Back in 2020, Schiff drew the ire of civil liberties groups like the Due Process Institute and Free Press for scuttling an effort by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon to block the FBI from being able to collect internet search and browsing records of Americans without a warrant.

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The following year, legislation by Schiff to go after domestic terrorists drew backlash from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, which warned, “a new federal domestic terrorism statute or list would adversely impact civil rights and — as our nation’s long and disturbing history of targeting Black Activists, Muslims, Arabs, and movements for social and racial justice has shown — this new authority could be used to expand racial profiling or be wielded to surveil and investigate communities of color and political opponents in the name of national security.”

Now, some people are sure to point to Schiff’s role impeaching former President Donald Trump as somehow significant. Meh. For any Democratic member of Congress, bashing Trump was and is basically in the job description. Not impressed.

So, uh, why should Adam Schiff be the next senator from California?

Beats me.

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]