According to Mitt Romney, Senator Kyrsten Sinema believes she “saved the Senate” in her first — and likely only — term she will serve.
One has to be extremely careful to note that there have been many more truly arrogant people who have served in the august body that is the United States Senate, but it would be almost impossible to find any Senator who was or is more arrogant and self-satisfied than Kyrsten Sinema.
There would be a lot of “ties” in that competition.
Sinema apparently thought she was Arizona’s new “maverick,” its new John McCain, and it seemed as though she believed she had earned that title without McCain’s significant seniority or powerful past.
She is the one who voted “thumbs down” as she pulled her expensive bag over her shoulder.
She purposefully mimicked Senator McCain’s earth-shattering vote on the Affordable Care Act (“Obama Care”), which was a true “moment” in Senate history, coming from a dying man with decades of experience in a middle-of-the-night vote against intense pressure. A Republican preserved “Obama Care.”
She soaked up corporate cash like few others and then pampered herself with it — from fine wines to dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants — and Sinema found a way for her political PAC to pay for it.
Oh! And she was elected by Democrats who assumed that Sinema would serve the Democratic agenda as conceived by President Biden.
But instead, she positioned herself to be a veto of the Democratic majority rather than furthering it.
Kyrsten Sinema is the reason we do not have a Voting Rights law.
She regularly positioned herself to be on the side of money and was showered with corporate cash.
Then she dumped the Democratic party altogether, perhaps trying to avoid a primary in Arizona with the hope that she’ll garner enough Republican votes to win.
Right.
Alas, it seems as though even Sinema understands she will lose, but she has what has been touted as “delusions of grandeur” about her post-Senate life.
According to Mitt Romney, as cited in the new book, Romney: A Reckoning, Sinema actually told Mitt — a live human being worth almost a billion dollars, who has been governor of a major state, nominated to run for president, and a Senator — that she doesn’t care if she loses:
“I don’t care. I can go on any board I want to. I can be a college president. I can do anything. I saved the Senate filibuster by myself. I saved the Senate by myself. That’s good enough for me.”
Again, she said that to a human, not a mirror. She said it to a very accomplished human and, love or hate Mitt Romney — he probably can identify a poser when he sees one.
Not for nothing, but the United States Senate’s filibuster is the single most undemocratic thing about this country (except for the never to be damned enough Electoral College).
Any board she wants? But there are so many good ones! Coke? Exxon? Goldman Sachs? Sorry, those boards are stuffed with people far more accomplished than a one-term senator.
Mitt Romney probably could approach Exxon, and they’d welcome him with open arms. Sinema, perhaps not so eagerly.
President of a university? Just because Ben Sasse went on to be President of the University of Florida doesn’t mean the University of Arizona will be calling any time soon.
She has an impressive education, a master’s in Social Work, and a J.D. at the fine public schools in Arizona.
In no way is this written as a condescension to someone who chose to stay home and pay in-state tuition. That is smart.
But Sasse went to Harvard and Oxford, earned three Master’s degrees, then went to Yale for his PhD. He then taught at the University of Texas, took an unpaid leave from UT to serve in G.W. Bush’s HHS, and was then President of Midland University.
He did all this before serving in the Senate for nearly two full terms, and only then was he offered the University of Florida job by a very conservative administration.
Sinema has an impressive background, but she is not in a similar position as Ben Sasse, who had extensive experience in academia before taking the Florida job.
And yet, she sounds so entitled!
But at least we hear her sense of entitlement as applied to life after the Senate. It is gratifying to know that she is aware that Rep. Ruben Gallego is likely going to win that seat in 2024.
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on X @JasonMiciak.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
