Biden’s speech sounded like Sinema
A few years ago, in an interview with Politico, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema complained about the fact that her fashion choices had become a regular point of interest for the media, something that would never happen to her male colleagues.
She said at the time, “It’s very inappropriate. I wear what I want because I like it. It’s not a news story, and it’s no one’s business. It’s not helpful to have (coverage) be positive or negative. It also implies that somehow women are dressing for someone else.”
It’s a fair point.
But the fact is, if Sen. Mitch McConnell (or any other male senator) had walked into the House of Representatives for the State of the Union address wearing a bright yellow suit I’m guessing there would have been some media coverage.
So, it shouldn’t surprise the senator that her bright yellow dress with its exaggerated sleeves got a lot of attention, and drew comparisons online to Big Bird and a Teletubby. (One writer suggested that Sinema’s outfit united the nation in mockery.)
If it’s possible to get past that dress (and, yes, I know it’s difficult) I believe it’s worth noting – given all the bile aimed recently at the senator by Democrats – that there were portions of President Joe Biden’s speech that sounded very much like … Sinema.
For example, relatively early on Biden said, “To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress. The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country and I know it’s many of yours: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America: the middle class, to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job, in my view.”
That’s kind of a mantra with Sinema.
Last year, collaborating with Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on immigration reform, she said, “We are working together on definitely the most difficult political issue of all of our careers.”
On another issue where she was reaching across the aisle, Sinema said, “The only way our nation can successfully tackle a challenge like domestic terrorism is by working together.”
There are a number of other examples, good and bad, depending on your politics and perspective. But it explains, in part, what the White House said after Sinema left the Democratic Party to become an independent.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted that President Joe Biden and his staff “understand her
decision” and they “have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her.”
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that, after the president’s speech, Sinema issued a statement reading in part, “We’ve shown that by setting aside partisanship and working together we can deliver meaningful solutions for everyday Arizonans … I welcome the president’s support of our bipartisan successes, and I look forward to continuing our collaborative approach in the year ahead.”
Biden, unlike Sinema, doesn’t shy away from confrontation, proving as much on Tuesday when he mixed his bipartisan appeal with in-your-face comebacks to Republican hecklers in the audience. And Sinema failed Democrats on a number of issues, particularly those that were blocked by her adherence to the filibuster. There’s no going back from that.
But Biden also spent his long years in the Senate developing relationships with Republicans, including a decadeslong friendship with Arizona’s late-Sen. John McCain. And he worked with the GOP whenever he could.
My guess is that Biden, like everyone else at his speech, noticed what Sinema was wearing. And as a guy who likes the way he looks in aviator sunglasses, he might even have appreciated it.
But as much as others want to write her off, Biden seems to share Sinema’s belief that sometimes, even in politics, it’s substance over style.