In desperate plea for relevance and attention, Arizona woman tells former friends she never liked them anyway

 Earlier this week, an incumbent defeated an inexperienced challenger in a Senate race.  I refused to be surprised, but the consequence of that runoff race was to give the Democrats a 51-49 majority rather than a 50-50 tie, with Harris casting a tie-breaking vote.  With a 50-50 Senate, every Democratic Senator is "pivotal," meaning that any defection by a Democrat defeats any Democratic proposition/nomination (assuming Republican unity in opposition), which gives a lot of power to any Democrat willing to threaten defection, whether that Democrat has any particular demands over which to negotiate (like Manchin) or just wants to be a game-playing twit (like Sinema).  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) undoubtedly enjoyed the power that came from being pivotal, but to be fair, he represents West Virginia, which is a deep red state.  He cannot go along with mainstream Democratic proposals if he wants to keep his job.  It is just that his position as a pivotal Senator gave him the power to make demands, which he did.

Kyrsten Sinema?  She just enjoyed playing games for the sake of playing games.  She never had any particular objectives, and while Arizona is not California, neither is it West Virginia.  She did not quite have Manchin's electoral  need to position herself as ideologically heterodox, nor did she appear to have any actual... um... wha'dya'call'em... preferences of her own.  She just liked making the Democrats jump through hoops because she could.

Consider some history.

In 2009 and 2010, the Democrats tried with a bare margin to pass healthcare reform.  They had 60 seats in the Senate, which meant that they could invoke cloture as long as they kept every Democrat on board.  There were a few from red states, with some conservative leanings, who negotiated hard for policy concessions.  Mary Landrieu, from Louisiana.  Red state.  Ben Nelson, from Nebraska.  Red state.

Joe Lieberman... from... Connecticut?

Yeah, Landrieu and Nelson were trying to make sure they could justify voting for Obamacare to their deep red states.  Lieberman was just jerking his party around.  How do we know that's what it was?  Consider:  he had previously supported lowering the age of eligibility for Medicare.  Evaluate that however you choose, but the idea was then proposed to Lieberman.  His own proposal.  He provisionally supported it.  Until he found out that Anthony Weiner supported it.

At the time, Weiner was a vocal lefty in the House.  This was before we found out that he was a creepazoid, and before his laptop got Hillary Clinton's campaign derailed in 2016, but in 2010, the left liked him.  So when Lieberman found out that Weiner supported lowering the age of Medicare eligibility, he (Lieberman) backed away from his own proposal.

That's how you know Lieberman was just fucking with the Dems.

Sinema was never Landrieu nor Nelson.  She was always Lieberman, and the Democrats had to put up with her shit because the Senate was 50-50.  As I said a few days ago, if she and Manchin coordinate, the Dems need to play along, but Manchin was never in it for the game of making the Dems jump through hoops, so the game is up.

What's a game-playing, manipulative, toxic person to do?  Find a new game, of course!

I'm an independent!

If you don't think this is about Warnock's win and her decreased relevance, then why isn't Manchin doing it?

And since it is Friday, here is some jazz.  Tigran Hamasyan, "Leaving Paris," live.  The studio version is on New Era.