Democrat Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema managed to channel the late Senator John McCain and Queen Marie Antoinette in her vote against the $15.00 minimum wage in last night’s Senate vote-a-thon. She also patted Senate Minority Leader on the back. These actions combined to break the internet.

You can call Kyrsten Sinema flaky or problematic, but you cannot call her predictable. The former Green Party member ran as a Liberal Democrat, and now belongs to the Problem Solvers Caucus and has a rather Conservative voting record.

Last night, the Senate held a vote-a-rama on the $1.9 trillion dollar (falsely named) Covid-relief bill. Less than ten percent of the funds in the bill actually have anything to do with Covid. The Senate Parliamentarian had already ruled that the $15 minimum wage amendment could not be part of the reconciliation bill, but Majority Leader Schumer wanted it in anyway. When it came time for Sinema to vote, she patted Mitch McConnell on her way to vote. Now, Kyrsten wanted to make sure that McConnell saw her vote. I guess Kyrsten Sinema didn’t get the memo that comity between colleagues his not done any longer. Remember, when Dianne Feinstein hugged Lindsey Graham during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings? The Left called for Feinstein’s retirement.

Kyrsten Sinema then walked up to the clerk, gave a theatrical thumbs down, a la John McCain, and gave a little royal dip before she flounced out of the Senate. She did. She actually really flounced. John McCain and Queen Marie Antoinette were well pleased with her performance.

Maybe even more offensive than @kyrstensinema’s enthusiastic *thumbs down* to raising wages for workers was how she buddies up to Mitch Mcconnell right before she does it and makes sure he sees her. pic.twitter.com/UWjDyeFDhb

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 6, 2021

The anti-American hater Reptile Representative Rashida Tlaib was not happy:

No one should ever be this happy to vote against uplifting people out of poverty. This is Senator Sinema voting no on $15 minimum wage. https://t.co/qNfYy8co4m

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) March 6, 2021

The Young Turks were angry, too:

Kyrsten Sinema was theatrical and gave a performance in her vote. There is no denying that. Yes, Sinema had been for the $15.00 minimum wage before she was against it. Maybe someone on her staff explained economics to her. Sinema does understand poverty. Her family was homeless for periods of time when she was growing up. They lived for a while in an abandoned gas station.

Sinema released a statement about her vote:

The senator released a statement as a video of her rejecting the $15 minimum wage measure in the new Covid-19 relief package made the rounds, saying she understood “what it is like to face tough choices while working to meet your family’s most basic needs.”

“No person who works full time should live in poverty,” the statement continued, adding: “Senators in both parties have shown support for raising the federal minimum wage and the Senate should hold an open debate and amendment process on raising the minimum wage, separate from the Covid-focused reconciliation bill.”

Other than her little royal dip, the comparison to Marie Antoinette is unfair. As was noted, there is disagreement among historians about whether the Queen actually said, “Let them eat cake.” when told that the peasants had no bread. Sinema brought chocolate cake for the Senate staffers who stayed up all night during the vote-a-thon. Bagels, lox and cream cheese would have been a more nutritious choice. I love everything bagels. But, the cake was a nice gesture.

Kyrsten Sinema is a flake and problematic. Now, you can add theatrical to those adjectives. She did the right thing by giving a thumbs down to the $15 minimum wage, even if she won’t be getting any awards. And, she did break the internet.

Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)