Kyrsten Sinema spent much of the last session of Congress trying to upstage Joe Manchin. Manchin prides himself on being the only senator Democrats, including President Biden, must lobby to pass signature legislation.
Sinema wants to be that senator and then some.
Sinema Leaves the Democratic Party
Sinema has decided that becoming an Independent is the best way to have her way. Yes, the Democrats already count two Independents in their ranks. They are Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine. However, they always caucus with the Democrats. Sinema intends to be more bipartisan.
Except that Democrats are bidding her good riddance. After all, she is a notorious pain in the ass to work with.
For example, at least Manchin always indicated what legislative changes were needed to get his vote. Sinema just wanted to play legislative diva and have everyone woo her endlessly.
Democrats had no choice. In a 50-50 Senate, they needed her vote to pass any legislation. And she seemed to relish having them prostrate themselves to get it.
For example, she made them woo her for over a year before deciding to join the Democrats. Once she did, they passed bills to improve healthcare, combat climate change, refurbish the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and return high-tech manufacturing to the United States.
Sinema an enigma?
The New York Times published a Maureen Dowd op-ed titled, “Sinema Stars in Her Own Film,” on October 3, 2021. Dowd spent most of it extolling Sinema’s apparent inscrutability.
I responded in a blog commentary titled, “Sinema is the Star of Democratic Dysfunction Vindicating Republican Dystopia,” on October 4, 2021. I spent most of it decrying Sinema’s narcissistic antics.
A report in The Hill on October 21, 2021, provoked me to vent further. Sinema was driving Democrats mad. She was refusing to agree to raise corporate taxes to fund key features of Biden’s legislative agenda. Here is how I responded on The Hill’s page:
Sen. Manchin might be hogging all the media attention. But Sen. Sinema has been acting like a Trojan Horse from the outset. I suspect wealthy Republican operatives/donors bought Sinema’s vote and party affiliation long ago. She’s just waiting for the opportunity to take center stage and make a show of switching political parties.
Switching to better serve her own interests
Well folks, enter Sen. Sinema stage right:
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is changing her party affiliation to independent, delivering a jolt to Democrats’ narrow majority and Washington along with it. …
The first-term senator told POLITICO that she will not caucus with Republicans and suggested that she intends to vote the same way she has for four years in the Senate. ‘Nothing will change about my values or my behavior,’ she said.
(Politico, December 9, 2022)
As cited above, I predicted this switch. Except, I had in mind Sinema not becoming an Independent but joining the Republican Party. Even so, the reason for this switch and its effect are the same.
Tuesday’s re-election of Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock gives Democrats a 51st vote. That means her vote is no longer so critical. And Sinema could not abide that.
She says “nothing will change” because Sinema hopes switching now means Democrats, including the president, will still have to lobby her. And, of course, she hopes the media will cover them doing so, just like before.
But think of what a scheming attention whore she must be. After all, she timed this stink bomb just to have everyone talking about her instead of Warnock.
This damning tweet by communications strategist Sawyer Hackett reflects the consensus on Sinema’s “bombshell” announcement:
Since taking office, Kyrsten Sinema has voted twice for measures with filibuster carve-outs—to raise the debt ceiling and confirm a Supreme Court justice. Why wouldn’t she do it to pass the bill to codify Roe — a bill she cosponsors?
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) June 30, 2022
However, I preempted Hackett’s tweet six months earlier in “Manchin and Sinema Double Cross Democrats to Save Democracy?” on January 15, 2022. I denounced Sinema’s passive-aggressive style of self-interested politics.
I also noted that she opposed Democratic partisanship protecting voting rights for Blacks. But she had no problem with Republican partisanship suppressing voting rights for Black. I posited that only racism could explain this discrepancy.
Enough said.
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