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So-So Tuesday Meanderings

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Even eight hours after polls started closing on the Super Tuesday primaries yesterday, I see little of real interest in yesterday’s results.

The biggest news of the day remains that we’re rid of Kristen Sinema, which should make it easier for Ruben Gallego to replace her.

Another big news nugget yesterday confirmed what some had speculated: that when Elon Musk flew to West Palm Beach the other day, it was to allow Trump to beg him for cash. Musk famously demands full board control in business negotiations; imagine how such a discussion would go with Trump’s campaign team, who thus far have run a far more professional show than Trump’s past Presidential elections. Or, for that matter, Xitter under Musk’s direction.

Speaking of Nazi sympathizers, the North Carolina GOP nominated a Black Holocaust denier to run for governor.

Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey will face off to take Dianne Feinstein’s seat — and sadly, the progressives weren’t even close.

Nikki Haley appears to have won Vermont. [Update: At 10AM, Haley will suspend her campaign but not yet endorse Trump.] Joe Biden appears to have lost American Samoa. [Correction: Updated reporting says it was a delegate tie.]

It will take days to figure out how much of Haley’s vote — under 20% in more conservative states and Texas — reflected cross-overs. Similarly, it’ll take some time to understand the significance of protest votes against Joe Biden, the most significant of which was in Minnesota. And given what a weird situation a two incumbent general presents it’ll take days to figure out what the turnout means for Biden and Trump.

One of the most important measures, in my opinion, is in where and how Latinos voted — particularly if Colin Allred, now the Democratic nominee in Texas, has a chance of replacing Ted Cruz. Again, it’ll take days to make sense of that.

The big takeaway right now is that a whole lot of people don’t want to be facing a Trump-Biden rematch. But as of yesterday, it is virtually certain that’s what will happen.

The Naked and Unbound Ambition of Kyrsten Sinema

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4d2ce6002fa58.preview-300As the kerfuffle over SB-1062 dies down, politics march on here at ground zero in Arizona. The GOP runs the key Executive Branch offices such as governor and Secretary of State but, more importantly in many respects, also the state legislature, and as long as they do state politics will continue to be dominated by clusterfucks and cleanups. But Arizona has issues with their statewide federal elected officials too. The current manifestation is not McCain, Flake, nor even the Pleistocene era brainfart known as Trent Franks.

No, today’s issue is the once and forever self proclaimed liberal Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema. The transformation of Sinema, who aggressively sold herself as progressive liberal when seeking election, to a conservative Blue Dog toadie of the Minority centrist Dem leadership has been nothing short of astounding, especially for those of us who reside in her district and voted for her in 2012. She completely betrayed her base constituents in Arizona District 9. That is mostly a story for another day though, today’s story is not about discrete policy issues, but wholesale admission of the deceptive nature of Kyrsten Sinema’s incursion into AZ-9 to start with.

The baseline is this: Thursday, longtime Arizona Democratic Congressman Ed Pastor of AZ-7 announced his decision to retire and not seek reelection in 2014. Local politicians, from seemingly forever Maricopa Board of Supervisor’s member Mary Rose Wilcox to new and fairly refreshing voices like state legislature member Ruben Gallego, were literally stepping over one another to announce they would be running for Pastor’s seat. They are almost all minorities vying to represent a solidly minority district. And this is no small thing, as most all of them have to give up their current position to do so under Arizona’s “resign to run” law.

I was asked early on Thursday, not long after Pastor’s announcement, by a friend who supports liberal Dems nationwide, about Kyrsten Sinema jumping in. I thought it was a joke question and said so. Because it was crazy talk. The joke, however, was squarely on me and her other constituents in AZ-09. Yeah, Kysten Sinema, who pledged herself to AZ-09, started lusting after AZ-07 the second it was announced available.

Not that Kyrsten Sinema (see her Twitter feed, which is a litany of everything but her contemplated district switch) or her managers/spokespeople will admit it, or even address the subject, but she was ready to walk from second one. How do we know? Because the Arizona Republic/12 News (via the excellent Brahm Resnik) got a copy of an email to Sinema’s inside staff proving it.

So, why is this a big deal? Because it shows that, for first term congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, her own raw narcissistic ambition, in a dynamic situation, immediately trumps loyalty to her constituents Read more →