Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not well-liked by the national elements of her party. As I wrote recently, Sinema earns high marks with both Democrats and Republicans in her home state of Arizona, something that is almost unheard of for a senator. Yet, you would never know how good of a position she’s in if you paid attention to the news media.

Because they almost all lean hard-left, most news outlets have been very critical of Sinema’s position. I’ve lost count of how many negative op-eds The Washington Post has printed against her at this point. The Arizona senator is also routinely maligned on cable news networks like CNN and MSNBC,

Despite that, she’s held fast in her opposition to blowing up the filibuster, which is what all of this consternation boils down to. Democrats and the media want to ram through a utopian, hard-left wishlist on the basis of just 50 votes. Sinema wants no part of that.

Now, the hit squad is coming for her. This morning, a story dropped claiming she created a hostile work environment for former staffers.

Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema staffers detail a 'demoralizing' office environment where they were afraid to 'mess up in any way' while working for the Arizona Democrat https://t.co/7KR3tGLZYQ via @cdechalus @rbravender @KaylaEpstein

— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) July 1, 2021

I love this so much because not only does it amount to literally nothing of substance, it reinforces the delusions that many on the left hold about work. I mean, really? Complaining that she held her staffers to a high standard? She’s a U.S. Senator. That kind of comes with the territory. A job is not a right, and if the stress level was too high, these people were welcome to go work somewhere else. Apparently, some of them did.

But this isn’t really about Sinema being hard on staffers. Rather, it’s about adding more pressure on Sinema to blow up the filibuster. The media are outright activists on this issue, which is why they won’t stop hounding Sinema and Manchin to change their position.

Despite that, it’s fairly clear this strategy is not going to work. Sinema, given the broad support she enjoys among her constituents, has no incentive whatsoever to kowtow to the far left of the Democrat Party. Doing so would actually open the door for a viable Republican challenger. Further, I think Sinema truly does believe what she says when it comes to preserving the rights of the minority party in the Senate. She’s playing the long game, knowing that Republicans will eventually be in power again. And years from now, her party will thank her for what she’s doing even as they trash her now.