Like Michael F, I have the United States Senate on my mind. I’ve been pondering who the Sinematic Senator is most like. She strikes me as a character out of fiction. She’s a bisexual former Green party member who is pandering to post-Trump GOPers in her closely divided home state.

Rebel Without A Cause could be the title of the Sinematic Senator’s memoirs, but she’s no James Dean or Natalie Wood for that matter.

There is, however, something adolescent and immature about the senator from Arizona. Remember when she “celebrated” voting against the $15 minimum wage?

Holy violation of Senatorial decorum, Batman.

I’m not even commenting on her wardrobe or wigs. I live in New Orleans, so some of my closest friends have many wigs including blue and pink ones.

As I pondered the Sinematic Senator, I realized that the fictional character she reminds me of most is Veda Pierce. That’s Mildred Pierce’s bratty daughter who is forever undermining Mommie Dearest.

I haven’t read James M Cain’s book for many years but I recently rewatched the Joan Crawford/Michael Curtiz film version. Veda’s role in beefed up in the Kate Winslet/Todd Haynes version, but she’s a brat fatale much like the Sinematic Senator.

It’s easy as well as accurate to label Krysten Sinema a sell-out. I have no idea what makes her tick or why she thinks she can discard her Democratic supporters in Arizona. There have been protests outside her Phoenix office all summer long. Arizona Democrats are right to feel betrayed. They thought they elected a maverick, not a saboteur.

I understand where the Man of La Manchin is coming from. He’s the only Democrat who can currently win statewide in West By God Virginia. The Sinematic Senator is less popular back home than her colleague Mark Kelly. She’s lost her base with her antics in Washington. It could cost her her seat in 2024.

I think Josh Marshall nailed the political implications for Veda Pierce Sinema in this post:

I had a conversation yesterday similar to a number I’ve heard over recent days: a business lobbyist explaining that yes, they want the infrastructure bill real bad and that their optimal scenario is that the infrastructure bill passes and the reconciliation bill goes down to defeat entirely. A separate irony is that most of those people – the ones who appear to have Sinema’s ear – seem entirely unable to grasp the implications for the Democratic party if that is indeed the final outcome. It will rip the Democratic coalition apart. Of course, in general, that’s not their concern or their problem. But it certainly means all the self-styled “moderates” they’re working with now will go down to defeat – both because of primaries but also just as the natural consequence of a Democratic rout. More business friendly Democrats in blue seats will also get replaced by more progressive members. I am consistently surprised how people whose whole job is politics, supposedly, seem to have so little grasp of its basic functions.

That’s what happened in 1994 and 2010; the former because of failure on the health care front, the latter because of success. Go figure.

Sinema’s antics seem to be driven by selfishness and political calculations straight out of the 1990’s. Does she really think that the Trumpified Arizona GOP will ever support a bi woman? Jeff Flake was too “moderate” for them. The Goldwater-McCain libertarian wing of the Arizona Republican party is either dormant or dead. Mavericks have morphed into Cyber Ninjas.

The thing that bugs me most about the Sinematic Senator is her refusal to bargain. Most politicians have their price, but her objections to the reconciliation bill remain murky. The Fifty-Fifty senate sucks.

Veda Pierce rebelled against her mother, Veda Pierce Sinema is rebelling against everything and everyone. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a brat fatale ingenue is only interested in the spotlight.

The last word goes to Little Feat: