Another day, another cinematic image for the Sinematic Senator. On the left is Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham in I Want To Live. It was a ripped from the headlines drama about a woman who was executed. It’s a helluva movie that was directed by Robert Wise and won La Hayward the Best Actress Oscar for 1958.

We turn from a fine actor to a bad actor, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema aka Veda Pierce Sinema and the Sinematic Senator.

In a typically outstanding piece TPM honcho Josh Marshall declared Sinema a Dead Senator Walking. The post title was even more celebratory: Rejoice-Krysten Sinema’s Political Career Is Already Over.

I’d usually urge caution on proclaiming the political death of someone not on the ballot until 2024, but I agree with Josh. Let’s bring on an early musical interlude:

Why wait for Future Times to Rejoice?

WHAM. Dead Sinematic Senator Walking. BAM.

The Arizona Democratic party sealed Sinema’s fate when they censured her for her filibuster flop.

It’s fascinating that someone who has had a successful career in elective politics couldn’t read the Democratic room in 2022. Of course, she started as a leftist member of the Green Party who once called Reagan and Poppy Bush, “the real Saddam and Osama lovers.” I am not making this up.

It’s not unusual for someone to migrate from the far left to the far right but this is not the final cut of the Sinematic Senator’s career. The Turtle claims to want her in his caucus but Arizona GOPers beg to differ. Sinema checks all the wrong culture war boxes: she’s bisexual, pro-choice, and on and on and on.

The current Arizona Republican party ran libertarian-conservative Jeff Flake out of office, censured Cindy McCain, and hired the Cyber Ninjas to run a fraudit. They get Trumpier by the minute. Does this sound like a soft-landing place for the Sinematic Senator?

WHAM. Dead Sinematic Senator Walking. BAM.

Her chances of running and winning as an independent are slim and slim just caught the first bus to Cucamonga. Holy Joe Lieberman and Lisa Murkowski lost their party primaries then ran and won as Independents. But they were long-time incumbents in states where their parties were dominant. Arizona may be trending purple, but it’s a red state until more evidence is in.

Sinema seems to think she can be John McCain in a frock. Josh Marshall explains why that’s unlikely:

To the extent we can understand what she’s thinking, Sinema’s model has been to be the new John McCain. She has repeatedly invoked his model as her own – the maverick who bucked his party but had cross party support. It’s a model that the DC lobbyist set has spun her on as well. What she never seems to have grasped is that McCain never bucked his party on the big stuff. The single example was with Obamacare repeal when he knew he had only months to live. McCain also had a powerful personal myth which, even if you think it was overblown, was based on genuine heroism and suffering. That gave him a reservoir of good will across the political spectrum that gave him substantial room to maneuver politically. Sinema has none of that

I’d add opposing torture to the short list of McCain’s mavericky ways. It was his finest hour.

The odds of a primary challenge to the Sinematic Senator grow each day. I rarely support such challenges, but I can make an exception in this case.

WHAM. Dead Sinematic Senator Walking. BAM.

I’ve deliberately avoided references to the movie Dead Man Walking because I don’t want to waste my time discussing Susan Sarandon. I’ll leave that to the Twitter people.

In case I offended any lefty fans of the late Susan Hayward with that featured image, let’s kiss and make up with a song from I’ll Cry Tomorrow a biopic about singer-actress Lilian Roth: