ma’s Sayonara // (Scott Johnson).
Burgess Everett reported this morning by Politico that Senatpr Kyrsten Silena is leaving the Democratic Party and changing her party affiliation from independent. She is “delivering an jolt for Democrats’ narrow majority” and Washington by doing so. Everett’s account from his interview with Sinema makes it difficult to imagine what impact her departure from the Dems will have.
The first-term senator said in a 45-minute interview that she would not join the caucus of Republicans and that she plans to vote the same way as she did for four years in Senate. She stated that “nothing will change about me values or my behavior.”
If Sinema keeps her word, Democrats will still have a viable Senate majority in the next Congress. However, it won’t be as neat and tidy as the 51 seats they assumed. They are expected to have the votes necessary to control the Senate committees. Sinema’s move means that Sen. Joe Manchin (D.W.Va.), a pivotal swing voter in the 50-50 chamber for the past two years, will retain some, but not all, of his enormous influence in the Democratic caucus ….
Sinema stated that she doesn’t expect that anything will change in the Senate structure. I am an independent.
Interesting timing by Sinema. In the wake of Raphael Warnock’s victory earlier this week, Sinema’s formal departure from Senate Democrats must have been deflating for them. I can only hope that this will have an adverse effect on their plans and dreams.
Sinema joins Senator Bernie Sanders (socialist) and Angus King (alleged Independent). They are not independents by name — IINOs. They are Democrats for all practical purposes. Everett cannot clarify Sinema’s intentions — her truth, or consequences, so it seems.
Unlike independent Sens. Sinema will not attend weekly Democratic Caucus meetings (Vt. and Maine), but she does it very rarely now. She isn’t certain if her desk will be on the Democratic side of Senate floor.
I believe Senator Sinema considers several of her Republican colleagues friends and confidants. It’s not good news to Democrats, that’s all that can be said. It wouldn’t matter if her “independence” fits the model of King or Sanders. It might, if it doesn’t. However, Everett doesn’t shed much light on the matter. I will continue to support the former until we have more information.
