Last Thursday I saw a Sinatra cover band at St. Francis Hall in DC. They were good. The singer, one Tony Sands, had the body language and the phrasing down pat.

One of the tunes he offered was from a Frank and Debbie Reynolds movie of 1955. As Sands swung into “The Tender Trap” it struck me.

That’s the way I previously felt about Dem Senators Sinema and Manchin, a certain tenderness towards them because they had scuttled liberal legislation in the past. And that was the trap. They made me forget, for a moment, they are willing members of a socialist authoritarian political party. The craziest members? Nope, but still members. It’s like a cretin went to a Klan rally, but he left half his sheets at home.

The matter in question is their recent yes votes on the massive Biden spending bill that just passed Congress with a tie-breaker vote by the airhead veep.

Granted, Sinema did water it down. Conservative economist Larry Kudlow opined, “Courtesy of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, probably the worst part of this dumb bill has been removed. Taxable profits will replace minimum corporate book profits, at least as far as 100% expensing of plant equipment and technology is concerned.” So there’s that. But the overall pernicious bill has passed.

It’s not that hard to see how I fell into the trap. Sinema is very attractive and that little curtsy she did when she spiked a Dem bill last year won my heart.

A liberal blog put it this way, “But the flair with which 44-year-old Sinema, a triathlete with a penchant for vibrantly hued wigs, voted to reject the proposal stunned progressives already wary about whether she had their backs.

After showing up for the vote carrying a chocolate cake, Sinema entered the chamber, walked to the front, paused, formed a thumbs down — a gesture often used by voting senators — and curtsied…With a cake and a curtsy — and little explanation — Sinema’s transformation into a super villain to the left was complete.” Okay, that’s style. That was a smug and charming coit you to the progs. It must have infuriated them. So, I cut her a break.

Manchin seemed like a Republican in Dem clothing who was fighting behind enemy lines. Kind of a West Virginia version of Colonel Robert Hogan. Manchin has killed more Dem legislation than the filibuster. Which is very cool. But on this big bill he was found wanting. The scales from my eyes are duly dropped.

Arizona has become a purple state so Sinema won’t pay much of a political price. She may even pick up some wayward Dem support. But West Virginia is one of the reddest Republican states in the Union. Manchin may have bought himself a lot of trouble by this vote. Unless, of course, as the DC rumor mill predicts, he jumps parties if the Republicans take the Senate in November.