I've been critical of uber-lefty state Senator Kyrsten Sinema on different issues, like the anti-Westboro Baptist Church legislation she recently sponsored in the legislature.
And I think it's a big mistake to think that Dems can work across the aisle with crocodiles such as state Senate President Russell Pearce. As my colleague Ray Stern blogged today, Sinema was burned by Republican trickery on a recent vote.
That should be a lesson. You can't trust a scorpion not to sting you. Unless, of course, you tear off its tail first.
However, Sinema is not without communication skills, as evidenced by this recent debate she had on Channel 8's Horizon with Republican state Representative John Kavanagh over Governor Jan Brewer's proposed budget.
Kavanagh, a toady of state Senate President Russell Pearce, got his lunch handed to him, with a cookie for dessert. Kavanagh is sometimes able to buffalo uninformed reporters, but Sinema knows what she's talking about here, while Kavanagh seems unprepared for battle.
"This budget is based on an unconstitutional premise," Sinema stated from jump. "The governor plans to cut about $540 million from our AHCCCS program. And she's going to ask the federal government for a waiver. But she's not planning to ask the voters for a waiver. And that's a problem, because they're the ones who passed this law in the first place. It's constitutionally protected, and in 2000, when they passed Prop 204, they said we have to provide this care. So the bottom line is this is a fake budget, with fake numbers."
Of course, the Republicans have since voted to give Brewer the okay to seek the waiver, so we're back in fantasy land with the likes of Kavanagh and all the other GOPers.
Good thing is, this one is their mess. So all the suffering, confusion, and fiscal mismanagement it engenders will fall squarely on their noggins. The Dems need to hold them accountable and use it against them in 2012.
In the meantime, kudos to Sinema for sticking a fork in Kavanagh and turning him over to bake.