The Unpopular Self-Absorbed Prima Donna Diva Demands That The Media ‘Look At Me!” (Updated)

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A blast from the past  – I remember it well.

Now our self-absorbed prima donna diva has pulled a Joe Lieberman, no doubt with encouragement from Lieberman’s No Labels, a big money operation co-founded by former Sen. Joe Lieberman that funnels high-net-worth donor money to conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Max Burns, a Democratic strategist writes, Sinema’s an independent because both Democrats and Republicans don’t like her:

A common refrain among Democrats during the midterm cycle was that Republicans selfishly put party over country. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement Friday morning that she was abandoning the Democratic Party to become an independent may require Democrats to modify their catchphrase. For Sinema, it seems it’s always been self over party over country.

Sinema’s announcement comes just days after Democrats won a hotly contested Senate race in Georgia that returned Sen. Raphael Warnock to Washington and gave Democrats a 51-49 majority. Sinema has been increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party, but her decision is still a kick in the shins to her political home when it was on the verge of ending 2022 with a string of high-profile wins.

Now the Democrats need to brace themselves for what comes next. Sinema will continue to caucus with Democrats, giving them the majority in committees and on nominations that they lack in the current 50-50 split. And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Democrats will “continue to work successfully with her.” But those rosy hopes are destined to clash with Sinema’s long-held desire to stand out as an ideological lone wolf.

Sinema made clear early on that she wants to claim the mantle of a different Arizona senator, the legendary John McCain. Nicknamed a “maverick,” the Vietnam War hero famously crafted an alternative approach to Republican politics during his 2000 presidential campaign, bucked the polls by supporting an unpopular Iraq War troop surge and ultimately cast the deciding vote to protect the Affordable Care Act when Republicans tried to dismantle it in 2017.

McCain’s maverick status rested on the perception, accurate or not, that he put principle above politics and voted unpredictably as a result of his integrity. [Two words: Sarah Palin. Nuff said.] Sinema’s theatrics, however, have proved that she’s better at copying the image of the maverick than understanding the substance of one. 

McCain was also an expert at reading the political room, and he recognized when a politically defensible space existed to break from his party. Sinema shows no sign of understanding that McCain’s political independence was the product of a savvy and calculating political mind, let alone having one herself. 

Sinema’s fickleness hasn’t earned her the coveted title of maverick; political observers are more likely to describe Sinema as “mercurial” with “unclear” policy goals. Writing in The New York Times, columnist Michelle Goldberg pointedly asked “What’s Wrong With Kyrsten Sinema?” Those headlines will make for an interesting memoir with a fat advance from a publisher, but they hardly inspire confidence in Sinema as a member of the nation’s highest deliberative body. Even Sinema’s own allies reportedly struggle to understand her political strategy and core beliefs. 

Perhaps as a result, Sinema’s most notable moments of political independence are also her most widely reviled. After Sinema voted against raising the federal minimum wage — though she’d vocally supported raising the minimum wage in the past — Sinema’s own hometown expressed their displeasure by approving a $15 minimum wage themselves.

Similarly, as debate over passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act reached a crescendo in 2022, Sinema voted against a temporary change to the Senate’s filibuster rules that was essential to the act’s passage. Republicans were then able to block the measure. Sinema’s decision was a slap in the face to Arizonans. In response, the Arizona Democratic Party took the serious step of censuring Sinema for her behavior.

That’s quite the political and ideological collapse for a former member of the Green Party [it’s not profitable being green in a pink tutu], who had once proudly cheerleaded for a host of liberal causes. Now Sinema, who once called raising big-donor campaign cash “bribery,” is an eager recipient of corporate money. In 2021, Sinema took in a personal record fundraising haul thanks in large part to huge donations from pharmaceutical companies and financial interests. But all the Big Pharma money in America won’t be enough to save Sinema from her own unpopularity — nor will abandoning the Democratic Party to be an independent.

In September, a poll by Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research found that her favorable rating was just 37%, with an unfavorable rating of 54%. Without any clear idea of what Sinema believes or whose interests she serves, it seems that voters no longer trust her. And Sinema’s net favorability of -20 with Democrats isn’t an outlier: She posts an almost identical -18 with Republicans, -10 with independents, according to data posted by FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver.

If Sinema seeks re-election in 2024, she’ll likely face a strong challenge on her left from Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. She’ll almost certainly need to fend off that challenge without the institutional Democratic Party resources she would otherwise have enjoyed.

Note: I heard an MSNBC host ask Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Gary Peters if Sinema would have party support in 2024 (like independents Bernie Sanders and Angus King). Sen. Peters dodged the question: “That’s for the next Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to decide.”

Actually, it should be the Arizona Democratic Party state committee members who decide at the biannual reorganization meeting on the third Saturday in January, 2023. Sinema used party resources, volunteers and donors to get elected in 2018. Then she betrayed her supporters and constituents who voted for the Democratic agenda she campaigned on by being a Vichy Democrat who voted with the enemies of democracy, the Sedition Party, on critical issues to save American democracy like the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, and her unprincipled support for the Jim Crow relic senate filibuster rule. The party censured her for it. The newly reconstituted Arizona Democratic Party needs to adopt a resolution at its biannual reorganization meeting which precludes Sinema attaining any access to party resources, volunteers and donors now that the prima donna diva is an independent lone wolf. Force her to build her own organization from the ground up and be a true independent, not an insufferable leech on the Arizona Democratic Party.

As the old saying goes, “Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya.”

Democrats have good candidates to run for Senate in 2024.

Max Burns concludes:

Sinema may consider herself a McCain-style maverick, but she’s increasingly looking like a political player out of her depth and in search of a constituency. Her desperate leap out of the Democratic Party will someday make a compelling story for her book. It’s also likely to end her political career.

My only regret is that I cannot simply help engineer her defeat in a Democratic Party primary and celebrate being done with her. A three-way general election is a trickier proposition and much more work.

Of course, Sinema may finally come to her senses and take my advice to take that sweet highly paid lobbyist job that she has been angling for and not run. I’m sure Big Pharma or one of her wealthy friends in private equity hedge funds have a no-work job with all the perks waiting for her. Take the payday, princess. Your political career is over.

UPDATE: Best joke I’ve heard about Sinema leaving he Democratic Party: “Wait, she was a Democrat?” A kindergarten teacher would write on her report card, “does not play well with others.”

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17 thoughts on “The Unpopular Self-Absorbed Prima Donna Diva Demands That The Media ‘Look At Me!” (Updated)”

  1. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/12/17/arizona-senator-kyrsten-sinema-files-as-independent-2024-senate-race/69736452007/

    Sinema files election paperwork as independent for 2024 Senate race

    Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission to run for the U.S. Senate again in 2024.

    The statement lists her party affiliation as independent.

    Sinema announced her departure from the Democratic Party a week ago in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic.

    At the time, she would not say whether she planned to seek a second term. This move doesn’t confirm that Sinema will seek the office but allows her to raise and spend money.
    …..

    She plans to caucus with Democrats, giving the party an edge on committee seats, something that could prove important to moving quickly on judicial nominations. But Sinema said she will remain uninvolved in party leadership votes and advancing the party’s broader efforts.

    Her statement of candidacy sets in motion the prospect of a three-way Senate race in Arizona in 2024. Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego and Greg Stanton are exploring whether to run, and the field is wide open for Republicans.

    Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who is leaving office in January, told The Republic he is not interested in campaigning for a Senate seat.

    • She Who Shall Not Be Names Because She’s A Horrid Seaward is doing this as a power move.

      She’s going to extract all the pain she can to help enrich herself.

      I get greed, I spent a few decades in Silicon Valley, where getting between a lying CEO and their stock options could get you dropped off the Dumbarton Bridge at 3am to die slowly in the mud.

      Only being slightly hyperbolic.

      But I’ll never get why anyone would become a Senator or Congressperson or POTUS and not see their place in history and want to be remembered in the history books for the great things they did.

      I know most of them are bad people, I’m not naive, I just don’t understand it.

      • I don’t understand it either. This would be a good question for the tribe elders, those who have great wisdom.

        In Sinema’s case my best guess is she suffers from the effects of childhood poverty combined with some form of mental illness, perhaps a narcissistic personality disorder.

        Her jig will soon be up, she’ll never be elected again anywhere in the state of Arizona. And I kind of doubt she’ll be appointed to a high level government position by any future president. Her political career is done.

        All that’s left is whether or not she decides to burn the house down on her way out the door. There’s no way of knowing, so the Democrats better plan for the worst.

  2. From Salon website. In response to a video Sinema shared about her decision—which she has framed as an attempt to “stay focused on solving problems and getting things done for everyday Arizonans”— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted that “not once in this long soliloquy does Sinema offer a single concrete value or policy she believes in.”

    “She lays out no goals for Arizonans, no vision, no commitments,” the progressive “Squad” member added. “It’s ‘no healthcare, just vibes’ for Senate. People deserve more. Grateful this race and nomination has opened up.”

  3. You say, “I’m sure Big Pharma or one of her wealthy friends in private equity hedge funds have a no-work job with all the perks waiting for her. Take the payday, princess. Your political career is over.” I agree with your last two sentences in this quote but the first sentence doesn’t make sense. If “wealthy friends in private equity hedge funds” like what she does as a senator why would they enable her leaving the Senate?

    • Have you already forgotten the example of Billy Tauzin, the former chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress, which oversees the drug industry? He was partly responsible for the “no Medicare negotiation of drug prices” in Medicare Part D, George W. Bush’s big policy idea. In January 2005, the day after his term in Congress ended, he began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies. Tauzin was hired at a salary outsiders estimated at $2 million a year.

      See, Bill Moyers for the background. “The Lobbyist Who Made You Pay More at the Drugstore”, https://billmoyers.com/story/the-man-who-made-you-pay-more-at-the-drugstore/

      It took until the Inflation Reduction Act this year – some 18 years later – to partially implement Medicare negotiation of drug prices beginning in 2023.

      Sen. Sinema preserved the carried interest tax loophole which hedge fund managers rely on to make their fortunes. She likely expects a similar sweetheart deal for her pandering to monied interests.

      • Sinema might well expect a sweetheart deal but why would Big Pharma or other wealthy donors want to support her leaving the Senate? It seems they would be better served keeping her there.

      • “Sen. Sinema preserved the carried interest tax loophole which hedge fund managers rely on to make their fortunes.”

        Yes she did and can you imagine the monetary value of her service to these donors?

        Well, I’m beginning to wonder how good she is at cutting a deal. According to Open Secrets the Sinema Leadership Fund raised $782,350 in 2022 as of the last report. Her election campaign fund since 2017 raised about 38% of what Mark Kelly has raised without taking bribes.

        She sold us out cheap. This is the “brilliant” girl boss who runs around DC with spreadsheets? Maybe she should have majored in math instead of social work.

        • Okay, I remember this now, “The carried interest tax provision of the Inflation Reduction Act was expected to have raised about $14 billion over 10 years.”

          Sinema has raised $2,683,498 from investment firms since 2017 according to Open Secrets. It’s more by now and there’s also contributions to her Leadership scam.

          So that’s maybe 4 to 5 million (so far) for 14 billion in return.

          Good grief, send her back to her gas station. She’s dumb as a rock.

  4. Some Democratic politicians were on the TV this weekend assuring folks that nothing has fundamentally changed in the Senate. Sinema will be with the Democrats.

    Bernie Sanders, however, never hides his contempt for her and Manchin.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sinemas-switch-independent-driven-political-aspirations-sen-bernie-san-rcna61166

    Sinema’s switch to independent driven by ‘political aspirations,’ Sen. Bernie Sanders says

    Dec. 11, 2022, 12:50 PM MST
    By Summer Concepcion

    “I happen to suspect that it’s probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona,” Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think the Democrats there are not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helped sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interests of working families and voting rights and so forth.”

    Along with fellow centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sinema held strong negotiating power over Democratic priorities in the evenly divided Senate. “She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact along with Senator Manchin, sabotaged enormously important legislation,” Sanders said.

  5. There is no way to know what Sinema is trying to accomplish with being an independent. The one thing that stands out is that she is spared a humiliating defeat in a Democratic primary in 2024. Her only other option would be to not run.

    Sinema’s power in the Senate is considerably diminished since the 51st vote isn’t critical. So it appears one of her last power moves is to leave the Democratic Party and become an unpredictable, loose cannon. Chuck Schumer has agreed to the first appeasement, she can keep her committee assignments including two subcommittees that she chairs.

    I can’t see how this helps her to win re-election as an independent. How can she “build her own organization from the ground up” with 50+ percent disapproval in every slice of the AZ electorate? The cost would be staggering.

    According to Open Secrets, Mark Kelly’s campaigns have raised close to 89 million dollars. It’s all spent, mostly in 2022. Sinema, despite selling her vote and teaching classes in fundraising, isn’t even in the ball park having raised 33 million since 2017. The last report shows 8 million cash on hand.

    There’s no way to know what Sinema is thinking. But I have noticed that she appears to have lost some weight and her clothes have been less extreme lately. Haven’t seen a purple wig for awhile. Reminds me of how she prepared for 2018.

    • Here’s another comparison. According to Open Secrets, Raphael Warnock has raised 150 million for his campaigns and spent 126 million.

      Mark Kelly and Rev. Warnock were both well liked incumbents going into their 2022 general election. Sinema, on the other hand, is best known for sabotaging the legislative agenda of her own party and selling her vote to corporate donors.

      It defies reason that Sinema would run in 2024 as an independent.

      That doesn’t mean she won’t do it.

      • Running in 2024 or not, based on her behavior so far, she’ll do whatever will get her the biggest payday without regard to the lives of Arizonans or Americans.

        Corruption in broad daylight and abetted by the corporate media, which is owned by her donors.

        • Yeah, she loves money but also power.

          It would be interesting to watch her spend whatever millions she can raise and get a smackdown from the voters, but it would probably hurt the Democratic candidate more than the Republican. And that Republican might be Kari Lake or someone equally as bad.

          But a narcissist never thinks about the harm they do to others.

      • Bottom line is the (insert derogatory noun of choice) will do whatever her masters order her to do. Whether it’s go off to whatever no-show sinecure her mega donors have endowed her with or run as an independent to spoil Democratic chances of holding the Senate seat, she’ll be more than happy to oblige.

  6. Tragic. She stands for absolutely nothing, other than her own selfishness. She is Alito. An outcome in search of a rationale.

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