Sanders: Arizona Dems’ Censure Of Sinema For Torpedoing Voting Bills Was ‘Absolutely’ Appropriate | Talking Points Memo

[eddycollins]

Hey, @opaquesquid, they could hold their convention in a phone booth (if anyone can find one, anymore). I expect she’ll dream of getting JoeL-level, mid-single-digit polling numbers…

However, I must admit, this from @josephebacon makes more sense to me than most (all?) of the speculation I’ve been hearing/reading.

@josephebacon

I fully expect Natasha Sinema to run as the Green Candidate in 2024. She wants to be the Jill Stein of 2024 to put Trump back in the White House.

At the very least, it’d jibe w/ the level of Republican’t projective skullduggery required to believe that PBO’s Hawaiian birth was a psyops-created hoax.

Like multitudes of others, I struggle to comprehend what kind of person would want (or allow themselves) to be weaponized into a widely-reviled one-term Senator, solely for the purpose of kneecapping a Democratic president(ial candidate, in 2024) and enabling a straight-up, unANTI-apologetic fascist takeover of America?

(I know the answer is ‘one like her’, but that’s not very satisfying or useful.)

Regarding this,

@chjim

…Sanders speaking up in this fashion simply confirms for the GOP its talking points with regard to all democrats. (emphasis added)

I’d argue that the sun appearing to rise in the East–or days of the week ending in “Y”–do too.

[gajake]

I doubt McConnell would trust her enought to let her caucus with his gang. She’s furtive, unreliable, and a danger to her allies. There are no mavericks in the new party.

[eddycollins]

FWIW @emiliano4, I’ve always liked the oft-presented, (semi-(?))joking suggestion that politicians should be required to wear utilitarian overalls w/ patches representing their major contributors’ interests/industries, a la auto racing flamesuits.

@emiliano4

…these politicians are wearing inappropriate clothing.

[stradivarius50t3]

@left_in_washington_state

I wonder if we need to brace ourselves for Sin-sin to flip the Senate.

That’s a constant concern when it’s 50-50, but if she switches party affiliation she has to run in the 2024 AZ-GQP primary. GQP voters in AZ are pretty happy with Sinema…they seem to be the only readily identifiable political bloc that does approve of her.

And why shouldn’t they approve of her? She’s a Democrat (nominally) but on all the crucial stuff she votes with Moscow Mitch.

Approving of a Democratic Senator doesn’t mean that GQP voters will back her in a primary election. It especially doesn’t mean that AZ-GQP primary voters will back her. She can throw the Senate to Moscow Mitch if she wants to (and I wouldn’t put anything past her), but that would be tantamount to lighting the funeral pyre of her political career. (Of course, that assessment assumes that her “I” vote on the most modest conceivable rules change did not already light that pyre.)

[heartflow]

@demosthenes59

That said, a censure is counterproductive

I could see a possible argument for that point if it was the Senate censuring her but seems to me the party in her own state has every right to do so and I don’t think it’s particularly counterproductive.

[dannydorko]

@eggrollian

Superfluous people need to be called out…

“He called me ‘super.’”

[left_in_washington_state]

That’s assuming she intends to run for the Senate again.

I have my doubts.

[dannydorko]

@katscherger

Ya know, if she’s going to act like the Senate is high school (or jr. high school), then she should face the consequences.

“I’ll see YOU after school.”

[pluckyinky]

@eggrollian

The Dems, in contrast, timed the stimulus to national need, obliterating child poverty in the process

My good friend who is a Dem-leaning Independent told me the other day that she’s getting back a lot of money in taxes this year, more than twice as much as last year. She said “Girl, any issues I might’ve had with Biden are over. I didn’t know they were doing all this!”

@libthinker

This plays right into her (spectacularly misguided, IMHO) tactic of framing herself as the “next McCain.”

This tactic is so shortsighted, it is a misnomer to call it a “strategy.”

Yep. She completely misunderstands how and why it worked for him. McCain rarely ever voted against his party (except when they tried to kill Obamacare which was quite likely personal for several reasons). What mostly gave him the maverick label is because he coauthored legislation with Democrats. That didn’t undermine his party at all. Doing so actually helped his party.

[rockitttla]

At this point, what does it matter if Manch-enema flip the senate? They are clearly conspiring with Republicons to undermine the Dem. agenda. It just makes Dems. look more ineffective when we control all 3 branches but can not do anything. Yes, Dems. are getting judges appointed, but the Cons control the SC for the next generation so it doesn’t matter what lower court judges decide. Dems. need to forget about Manch-enema and focus on the next election. Dems. must go to the people and ask for a supermajority so they can move the country forward. Manch-enema are the enemy third column and Dems. need to wake up and deal with that fact.

[pluckyinky]

@dave48

Between now and then, just imagine how much more damage she can do. She doesn’t even need to switch parties.

That’s why we must elect at least two more Dems. Doing so would render her completely irrelevant and she’d have zero ability to hurt the party. She’d get no attention and she’d be in the position of having to either vote against legislation that passes or vote for things she previously said no to.

[maximus]

@left_in_washington_state

While I agree with and understand the AZ Democratic move, I wonder if we need to brace ourselves for Sin-sin to flip the Senate.

Doubtful, even Moscow Mitch has some depths he won’t stoop to…

[inversion]

Bernie doesn’t live in Arizona.

[maximus]

@dannydorko

“I’ll see YOU after school.”

Is it possible to get a cease-and-desist order on @dannydorko on a late Sunday afternoon? Asking for the rest of us on this thread.

[rockitttla]

The censure is right and just because Sinema is wrong, more than wrong, she is evil. Az. Dems. are right to disassociate the Dem… party from her. If she were to flip and officially moves to the dark side it would only prove the Az. Dems. right.

[swell]

@lizzymom

She’s cray-cray

Dum-dum, also too.

[heart]

Bernie has been a team player and kept his followers, for the most part, on board. He has supported Biden’s agenda. Biden has wisely made an effort to heal the divisions within the Democratic Party.

[mrf]

Remember when the conventional wisdom from the punditocracy was the Squad and progressive caucus were the ones who were going to stomp their feet and gum up the agenda where for the better part of the past year it’s been Manchin and Sinister.

[ronbyers]

I acknowledge that she did support voters rights, but voting against filibuster reform meant the loss of voting rights and that could mean the end of America as a democracy. So, I think it is totally appropriate for Democrats and Independents to voice anger at her actions.

[dommyluc]

“Hi! I’m Kyrsten Sinema, and these are my Rick Perry Smart Glasses!”