Hi Kyrsten,

I wasn’t surprised when you announced on Tuesday that you were not going to run for re-election. I wasn’t surprised because you hadn’t done any of the things you needed to do to run a successful reelection bid. In a way, you know, it’s an apt metaphor for your Senate career.

I hope you won’t be offended when I say that I didn’t really notice you early on. The Senate was controlled by the GOP, and your vote wasn’t important and so neither were you. But then 2021 brought us a tied Senate under Democratic control, and you decided to make it all about you.

For some reason, you decided to make Joe Manchin your lodestar. I guess you thought he was a role model because he was frank about why he didn’t support parts of Joe Biden’s agenda and often got concessions, and so you thought it was the way to fast track yourself to presidential influencer status.

I was pretty surprised that you couldn’t see the difference between the 2 of you:  he’s from a conservative formerly Democratic state that completely lost the way when TFG came on the scene. And I know, because I’ve lived in West Virginia for over 15 years and witnessed those changes firsthand. And he had a track record as governor too, to allow him to explain how he was representing his state and the people who elected him.

But you represent Arizona, and you ran as a progressive. You promised your voters support for all kinds of progressive policies. Did you never think that the Democrats would eventually take the Senate and so you’d have to run on actual progressive accomplishments, instead of just being able to complain that you never even had the chance to make a difference?

When your obstruction didn’t give you the accolades you wanted, in 2022 you looked at the Senate Independents who were loved and respected, and decided you’d join them. Finally you were going to be a contender! Except the Democrats added to their Senate majority in the mid-term elections, and you were superfluous.

Instead of working with the Dems—technically the beloved compromise you blathered on about in your announcement since you were no longer a Dem yourself—on issues like killing the filibuster for voting rights or for women’s reproductive freedom, you remained a stubborn obstacle, and ended up looking like a jackass.

Worst of all—for you—you thought that you were taking a brave stance for your beloved compromise when rich people courted you for your vote, and paid you for your service to them. You remind me of Clarence Thomas who was also entranced by the high life, and in the end sold his soul for his love of money. And you thought you were so cute when you danced up to the front of the Senate chamber to kill raising the minimum wage, huh?

I know you think you did everything for us and we’re just ungrateful. But the truth is that you did it all for the people who paid you for a fake vineyard internship while you refused to meet with constituents, and for the people who made it possible for you to travel in private jets, and for the people who paid for your marathon jaunts. Maybe they’ll repay you now. Or maybe you’ve miscalculated there too, and you don’t have much influence to sell them after you became irrelevant.

Either way, good riddance.

Billie Joe has it from here: