Senator Kyrsten Sinema was sincere when she asked her colleagues to “tone down the excesses of greed.” But her words ring hollow.
Outgoing US Senator Kyrsten Sinema mentions the filibuster in his farewell speech
Kyrsten Sinema focuses on filibuster efforts and bipartisanship during her farewell speech on the Senate floor on December 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Provided by the office of Senator Kyrsten Sinema
Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been exiled from the Democratic Party for doing what she thought was the right thing.
One of her signature pieces of legislation, a powerful bipartisan border security bill supported by the Border Patrol, was killed by Donald Trump to keep his presidential campaign alive.
She was isolated, rejected, outcast. Re-election was not possible.
But there was money in her campaign coffers and plenty of wonderful places in the world to visit.
So I did. Sinema has spent most of her recent run in the US Senate moving from honesty and integrity to hypocrisy.
Sinema used campaign funds to travel the world
The annoying folks at the Washington nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics say Sinema is violating election rules that prohibit candidates from using campaign funds for purely personal purposes.
“The rule of thumb is that any dollar your campaign spends must be for the campaign — it can’t be for your own personal benefit,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a written statement. “It is difficult to see how any of this spending was for the campaign.”
This follows a news report in the Arizona Republic a few months ago about how Sinema, a self-proclaimed lame duck, billed her campaign for more than $200,000 in travel expenses during visits to France, Japan, the United Kingdom and other international destinations.
It’s the kind of thing a person in Sinema’s position does because she can. Not because she should.
The message is the same as on her naughty ring
Remember that photo of Sinema from a few years ago with Naughty ring on her finger? The person who has the f-word suggested to him?
Yes, that seems to be the message.
It’s somewhat disappointing given Sinema’s impassioned farewell speech in which she asked her colleagues to respect the principles of the Founding Fathers and protect the “guardrails” of democracy.
I think she was honest.
Despite the many legislative victories, forged with bipartisan support, it is easy to understand Sinema feeling bitter — even betrayed — after her bipartisan border security bill was rejected by members of Congress on the orders of Donald Trump.
Trump bragged About killing him.
The bill would have gone a long way toward combating the flow of illicit drugs, solving the asylum problem and strengthening the Border Patrol with more officers and enhanced security.
Then she asked Congress to stop the “excesses of greed.”
But any progress on border security would have hurt Trump’s fear-mongering campaign.
Therefore, he was killed.
In her farewell speech, Sinema spoke about: The need for “handrail” protection Such as procrastination and the dangers of throwing it aside.
“Many now blame these security barriers for obstructing crucial progress, rather than recognizing that it is us, our actions, our words, our incivility, and, ultimately, our unwillingness to compromise, that prevents reasonable solutions from advancing,” she said in part.
“They are there for a reason: to cultivate relationships so we can move history forward, mitigate the excesses of greed and reduce the hunger for power,” she added. …Our democracy ensures that no one person or party has too much control. “The checks and balances built into our government protect us all.”
She was right.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to give much credence to what she said, particularly her call to “mitigate the excesses of greed and curb the thirst for power,” when she uses her campaign money and Senate position to convince Marco Polo to make her way around the world. world.
Arriving in Montigny ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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