‘America’s better for Dianne Feinstein having served her country’

Senators on both sides of the aisle on Sunday effusively praised Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last week at the age of 90.

“Let's reflect on a well-lived light: America’s better for Dianne Feinstein having served her country,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of the California Democrat in an emotional interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco first elected to the Senate in 1992, died Thursday night in her home.

Saying “Dianne wasn’t the problem, she was the solution,” Graham asserted that Feinstein was proof that “it’s OK to be tough and kind.”

Graham also said that when he first arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2003, a senator whom he declined to identify told him if he wanted to get legislation moving, it was imperative to get the support of either former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) or Feinstein.

“If Ted was the lion, she was the lioness,” he said. ”She could move votes.”

Graham made it clear it was a personal loss for him.

“She was my friend, I miss her, and If you’re looking for a role model in politics as a young man or young woman, look to her life,” he said.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also praised Feinstein, calling her "such a beautiful person."

He went on to describe her as a “compassionate” role model who respected her colleagues for their stances even if they were not as liberal as hers.

“There’s not a person that served more honorably than Dianne Feinstein,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”