Alex Pareene: “I am not really a bettor, but I’m pretty sure, right now, that Kyrsten Sinema is going to formally leave the Democratic Party in the near future, probably after the 2022 midterms. I also think that if Republicans win control of the Senate in those midterms, she will choose to caucus with them.”

“I suspect Sinema decided to leave the party years ago and has simply been waiting for the most dramatic moment to do so. With Democrats currently occupying the White House and having a very slim majority in the Senate, it makes sense to continue caucusing with them to maximize her power.”

Daily Beast: “For many people both inside and outside the Beltway—who are hanging on her every maneuver around President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda—Sinema is a mystery. And for people who once considered themselves her allies, friends, and confidants, the senator is now mostly a black box to them, too.”

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may be insisting that he won’t help President Joe Biden and Democrats solve a debt ceiling impasse again,” Politico reports.

“But White House officials are still planning for the Kentucky Republican to climb down as yet another deadline approaches in December, after he convinced 10 Republican colleagues to break the logjam last week.”

“Inside the White House, aides don’t view McConnell’s insistence as a hard ‘no.’ Instead, they consider the recent vote in the Senate to raise the debt limit for two months a harbinger for the future, underscoring that Republicans could easily join Democrats through regular order if need be.”

Sen. Kysten Sinema (D-AZ) told a group of moderate House Democrats that she won’t support a budget reconciliation bill until the bipartisan infrastructure bill passes, Reuters reports.

Also on the video call was Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who told the group that a $2 trillion top line for the bill is not a good starting point.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced in a letter to colleagues the Senate “will vote next week on a new voting rights bill backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV),” Axios reports.

“Democrats still face the same roadblock to enacting it: the filibuster.”

“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the moderate Arizona Democrat who has objected to the size and scope of President Biden’s sweeping legislative agenda, has been trailed all over the country by progressive activists seeking to pressure her. They have followed her into a bathroom in Arizona, on an airplane and even to the Boston Marathon,” the New York Times reports.

“But this week, with the Senate out of session, those activists would have had to travel even farther to press their case with Ms. Sinema in person — she’s in Europe on a fund-raising trip.”

“The backlash Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell received from fellow Republican senators last week is a wake-up call to the GOP leader that he doesn’t have any more political capital to spend on helping Democrats raise the debt limit again, say GOP aides and strategists,” The Hill reports.

“McConnell is still secure in his position as Senate Republican leader, despite regular attacks from former President Trump, who has called for him to be replaced.”

“Yet at the same time, Senate Republican aides and strategists say McConnell’s reputation took a hit last week when he agreed to a two-month increase of the debt ceiling after saying for weeks that Republicans wouldn’t help Democrats on the issue.”

Boston Globe: “Activists from a group known as the Green New Deal Network plan to confront Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who has qualified to run in the marathon, over her refusal to commit to supporting the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act.”

“The Green New Deal Network, a coalition of 15 national organizations, said in a statement that activists plan on ‘birddogging’ Sinema during the marathon in an effort to pressure her on the issue.”

“He’s the standard bearer of the progressive movement. Once he signs off on something, every progressive in the House will vote for it.”

— Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), quoted by the Washington Post, on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).