Arizona’s Senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema joined Joe Manchin (WV) and Doug Jones (AL) as the only three Democrats who voted to confirm William Barr as Attorney General. A former Green Party activist and progressive state legislator who represented a blue district in central Phoenix, Sinema has moved farther to the right with each successful bid for federal office, first three terms in the House and now the Senate.
Some political calculations may make sense, since Arizona as a whole is nowhere near as blue as the district she once represented. Still, she would not have suffered electorally had she said no to William Barr for AG (Arizona is no longer pure red, D’s outnumber R’s in Congress, and the demographics point toward a bluer state). The Senator’s vote is more likely to hurt her among Dems, if the scuttlebutt I hear around town is any indication. That’s even more true for Sen. Sinema’s vote for David Bernhardt as Secretary of the Interior, where again she, Manchin, and New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich were the only Democrats who voted to confirm the former oil industry lobbyist.
If you write the Senator’s office, her form reply says she is “proud to represent the people of Arizona.” Bull, she does not represent Arizonans! Nearly 70 percent of us want public lands protected more, not less. If the Senator did represent her constituents, most of whom value the state’s majestic beauty, she would not have confirmed a millionaire to lead Interior whose career has been spent chewing up land and suing the EPA.
Bernhardt’s been busy in Arizona since his confirmation: his mining pals are planning the nation’s third largest open-pit mine 30 miles from Tucson—an obscene mile-wide pit that will destroy pristine environments and sacred tribal burial grounds. Not far away, near the Mexico border, a new community of 70,000 people, built by one of Bernhardt’s friends, will suck dry the only remaining free-flowing river in the Southwest, a rare habitat for endangered species.
That’s what passes for “advise and consent” in Sen. Sinema’s office: put people in charge who overturn the agency’s mission, put political cunning before moral obligations. Senators Manchin and Jones have said they were reevaluating their vote for AG William Barr, so when we heard that Sen. Sinema had called a meeting with him, I optimistically thought, “Hey, she’s going to read him the riot act for pissing all over the Constitution and making her vote look really bad.”
Silly me.
No, instead she said after meeting with Barr that “she stands by her support of the attorney general. She cited his qualifications, his belief in the mission of the office, and commitment to upholding the law.” Really? What “mission” is she talking about? The mission to keep Donald Trump out of jail? And what “law” is she referring to? Opus Dei maybe? It’s certainly not the U.S. Constitution.
When pressed by a reporter, Sen. Sinema got stern: “I will not hesitate to hold administration officials accountable when they fail to meet their obligations.” I’d like to know what political barometer she’s using to evaluate William Barr, whose tenure has been nothing but a failure “to meet [his] obligations”—unless that obligation is to a lawless President.
Nowhere in Sen. Sinema’s statement does she mention Barr’s initial four-page misrepresentation of the Muller report; Barr’s outrageous press conference that handed the President his “No Collusion, No Obstruction” PR gimmick; Barr’s obstructive non-responses before congressional committees; or his refusal to hand over an unredacted Mueller report to Congress. For starters.
Speaking of the report, maybe Sen. Sinema could tell us what version she read, because she doesn’t say a word about the Big Bright Flashing Neon examples of obstruction listed there, all queued up for Congress to hit out of the park. Nor does she mention Trump’s in-plain-sight current obstruction, carried out in tandem with Barr, including but certainly not limited to the White House’s refusal to turn over any documents and buttface ordering staff, past and present, not to testify or cooperate with Congress in any way. That’s the branch you represent, Senator.
Now, thanks to Trump, who Sen. Sinema does not believe should be impeached, William Barr has full authority to declassify any intelligence documents in his quest to undermine the Mueller investigation and “ratfuck” the 2020 election.
Senator, quit digging, say you were wrong about Barr. The history books will be kinder, and it’s the right thing to do. I surely appreciate her stances on, say, LGBTQ or women’s rights, but there’s a democracy that needs attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment