Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dec 15, 2023
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective                                                                     
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
Irony enters the fray
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
          WASHINGTON — Irony has entered the fray, and as is often the case with irony it is not only unintentional, but also not even recognized by its perpetrators. So, this story is misunderstood, fascinating, and consequential, and it could determine the outcome of the presidential race.
          President Joe Biden is not polling well. Immigration and aid to Israel and Ukraine are being linked by Republicans, but these issues will be resolved. The truly unique and interesting political game is being played out elsewhere.
          Neither is inflation the game. We repeatedly have written that the Federal Reserve is reporting it wrong. The inflation rate for November was 0.1 percent, and simple math would tell us that is 1.2 percent annualized. But the Fed does not see it that way. The Fed looks backward and says 0.1 percent averaged with the last 12 months creates a rate of 3.1 percent. But at least the Fed has stopped raising its interest rate and has acknowledged that it will soon be lowering the rate. The stock market jumped 500 points on the news.
          The irony-filled game is with the Supreme Court.
          The Court is examining two Trump-related lawsuits, one on whether a former president has immunity from future crimes and if it is “double jeopardy” to prosecute the former president for alleged crimes he was acquitted of by the U.S. Senate in his impeachment trial.
          The other review by the Court asks if disruption of a government proceeding is a crime and applicable to the 1/6 insurrectionists, including Trump, who tried to stop the certification of Biden’s election in 2020.
          Both cases have pro-Trump Republicans celebrating. After all, Trump appointed three of the nine Court members, and two others, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are reliable hard right justices. Of course, there is no guarantee that these five justices will side with Trump. They may actually make decisions based upon the law rather than politics, but ever since the infamous 2000 Bush v. Gore decision that stopped the vote in Florida and effectively anointed George Bush president, politics have played a heavy role with the Court.
          But not so fast. Here comes the irony.
          The Republican Party is on record as a pro-life party, an unpopular stance it understandably does not want to emphasize in the coming election.
          Yet, in a decision applauded by the pro-life Republican community, the Court has agreed to hear a case claiming the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) wrongly decided that the abortion drug, mifepristone, is safe enough to be dispensed in pharmacies and disbursed in the mail without a woman seeing a doctor in person. More than half of abortions are performed with this and another similar drug, and their record of safety beats most other over-the-counter medications, including Tylenol.
          This Court already overturned Roe v. Wade, undermining pro-choice advocates of a federal right to terminate pregnancies. The decision threw the issue to the states, but even red states like Kansas objected.
          Now, with the FDA case, the pro-life side is being given another opportunity to invoke its will on the overwhelming majority of Americans who are pro-choice. And if the Court votes against the FDA’s authority in this instance, two repercussions will result. The Court will have undermined a federal agency’s ability to effectively function under its congressional mandate while simultaneously alienating a majority of citizens in the process.
          In the end, pro-Trump Republicans are seeking to have the Court issue a Get-Out-of-Jail card for their leader through two cases while simultaneously seeking to solidify their pro-life position through another case. They do not seem to realize that while the two Trump cases might work for them, the FDA case most certainly will not, and it could cost them the election. Hence the irony.
 
          Eleanor Clift’s latest book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
          Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
          © 2023 U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
          Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND