An Attempted Keith Olbermann Dunk on Former Flame Kyrsten Sinema Does Not Go as Planned

As we reported earlier, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) ruffled feathers and caused yet another flare-up within Democratic party ranks when she spoke Monday at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center and proclaimed that the 60-vote threshold “for the areas in which it has been eliminated already” (judicial nominees) should be “restored.”

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who along with the university created the center in 1991, praised Sinema in advance of her speech for what he characterized as a rarity on the left these days: being a “genuine moderate and a dealmaker.”

Between the praise from McConnell, her remarks on the 60-vote threshold as well as her prediction that control of the House and possibly the Senate was “likely to change” soon, Sinema – who is up for reelection in 2024 – received a scolding from former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who made sure to take a moment out of his day to remind people that he and Sinema were once an item before declaring she was hopelessly lost from an ideological standpoint:

When we dated, in 2010-11, Kyrsten was a legit progressive, far to my left.

Now she has embraced the Political Industry™️ where there is only process, not policy, and never people.

Perfect solution: she can be the next host of @MeetThePress https://t.co/lSvKDDykjZ

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) September 26, 2022

One of the big problems with Olbermann’s attempted dunk on Sinema is that it obviously reflected very poorly on him. I mean I get that he craves the limelight and all that and name-dropping does that for people, but he could have made exactly the same point about Sinema without throwing their alleged dating history into the mix.

Besides that, people’s political perspectives sometimes change. Mine did. I used to be a flaming liberal, but that was long ago when I was young and stupid. Clearly Sinema has evolved to a certain extent as well (including on her dating preferences!), and that’s perfectly okay unless you’re a jilted ex like Keith Olbermann or are one of the many Democrats who think Sinema should be primaried because she doesn’t always toe the party line.

Further, Olbermann’s deliberate mention of their dating history also shined a brighter light on something else he’s become infamous for: a serious lack of journalistic integrity:

Wait, Olbermann and Sinema dated? He certainly didn't disclose that when he interviewed her in 2010 and 2011 on MSNBC ahead of her Congressional campaign in 2012. https://t.co/n67ZgBSKtC https://t.co/8Erwl0oKyh https://t.co/u8vTSZ8FXr

— Rob Tornoe (@RobTornoe) September 26, 2022

Olbermann then had the nerve to act offended when someone else pointed out how often he played the “I knew Sinema well card” prior to his Monday tweet:

For a long time I believed – and held to a preference – that there was no need to make the dating part public. The friendship preceded and followed it for a span of 7 years; I thought it was sufficient context. Turns out it wasn't. https://t.co/2wtnRfuyrD

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) September 26, 2022

Perhaps at the root of Olbermann’s hostility towards Sinema is not just the fact that they aren’t together anymore but because she, like two other notable female public figures he dated in the past (MSNBC’s Katy Tur and Fox News’ Laura Ingraham), has gone on to be far more successful and effective than he ever has been and likely ever will be.

Obviously, Keith Olbermann does not merely have a woman problem; he’s got a successful woman problem. No wonder he always seems so angry on Twitter, bless his heart.