There's a new reality in American politics, and one political party is reaping the benefits of it while the other is trapped in a downward spiral of ever-increasing extremism. Some Republicans are beginning to understand the power of the sleeping giant they have awoken, but there's really no easy way out from the conundrum they have created for themselves. Abortion is going to be a potent political issue for at least the next few elections, and Republicans' only answer so far is to double down, triple down, or quadruple down on forcing the most extreme positions they can come up with on as many of the American people as they possibly can.

The most interesting report on the Republicans' growing unease over where they find themselves now was a story about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Just last year he got his legislature to pass a 15-week ban on abortion. He signed the law very publicly, with much fanfare. While that seemed a strong enough political move for him back then, however, it is now seen (by the increasingly-Draconian forced-birth activists) as insufficient. So DeSantis just passed a six-week ban. Except this time he signed it late at night with no journalists present, and then the next morning when he addressed a very conservative crowd, he didn't even mention his new law, despite the friendliness of the crowd.

Democrats are already on the offense on the issue. They're ready to use the issue against him when DeSantis travels the country in the run-up to his expected bid for the GOP presidential nomination:

"We're going to make [Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] own this, and his agenda, everywhere he goes," said a national Democratic operative granted anonymity to discuss party strategy. "Goes to Michigan? Abortion ban. Goes to Ohio next week? Abortion ban. And that will take different forms but we'll hang this incredibly toxic abortion ban and his agenda around his neck with different tactics."

He won't be the only one trying to defend extremism to the public -- a public which has only grown more supportive of women's rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs decision.

Also in the news was a theocratic federal judge in Texas, who could barely contain his obvious bias while issuing an order to end the F.D.A.'s approval of one of the drugs prescribed for chemical abortions. The Fifth Circuit of Appeals quickly suspended the judge's stay (which would have gone into effect tomorrow), but in doing so they seriously limited access to the drug for American women. This action is being appealed to the Supreme Court, which could weigh in before the deadline is reached. [Editor's note: the Supreme Court just extended this deadline until next Wednesday, after this was written.] The Supreme Court is going to have to have the final say on the matter, since a different federal judge issued an order last week in complete contradiction to the Texas judge's ruling -- an order to the Biden administration not to change the public's access to the drug (in a limited number of states, however). These radically different outcomes are going to require the Supreme Court to issue a final judgment. And nobody has any idea what they'll do, of course.

Politically, the interesting thing about the Texas judge's order was that virtually no Republicans in Washington wanted to even talk about it. Republicans in Congress are trying to keep their heads down, avoid the fray, and just stick to their "it should be up to the states" mantra. But that doesn't work when one radical judge can change access for all American women. That is definitely not a state-level issue:

But if this was a proud moment for the GOP, you wouldn't know it by its response. As The [Washington] Post's Dan Diamond noted, virtually no Republicans were publicly celebrating the Texas ruling on Friday night -- as opposed to the many Democrats decrying it. And that continued through the weekend, according to Legistorm's compendium of lawmaker tweets and press releases; it records only one GOP press release in favor. One of the few Republicans to weigh in by early Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), actually urged the FDA to disregard the Texas ruling.

So what gives? It seems perhaps the clearest example to date of how the GOP is the proverbial dog who caught the car on abortion rights and isn't quite sure what to do about it.

While the Republicans really don't want to talk about how unpopular their agenda has become, on the other side is a growing backlash against the GOP's position -- and not just on abortion. Republicans seem to want to run all their elections on banning books from schools, demonizing trans kids and drag queens, and ending all mentions of racism in the classroom. Their fearmongering is becoming more intense and more extreme with each passing day. And it is all about governmental control over people's lives. Which isn't exactly a winning message, electorally -- but they just don't seem to realize this salient fact.

Republicans have no actual position on abortion, as a party. And the GOP politicians who are open to any sort of compromise or compassion on the issue are mostly too scared of losing a primary election to another Republican who is more extreme. So they keep passing more and more bills in more and more states that get more and more extreme, while the national Republicans are completely silent. Even Republicans running for president are waffling when it comes to stating exactly what they would support -- a nationwide ban? What week? Any exemptions? What penalties? -- because they know full well that no matter what they say, it is going to make them enemies. If they support something more of the public would consider reasonable, then they have left themselves open to attacks from the more fervent of the forced-birth crowd. If they go full-on extreme, they know they're going to have a very tough time winning suburban and independent voters. Who are increasingly supportive of women's right to bodily autonomy -- polls show that the public supports not just the legality of the abortion pill but having them accessible by mail, too, to the tune of 65 percent approval or even higher.

Politically, Republicans are caught in a bind. Which could be very good news indeed for Democrats -- especially now that there is growing proof of how potent the issue can be at the ballot box.

Speaking of Democrats, President Joe Biden had a fun week, as he travelled to both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for an early celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Accords (which largely ended "the Troubles"). Biden then took a few days to vacation and explore his own Irish roots, as many Americans are wont to do on the Emerald Isle.

Amusingly, right before he left, Biden took a potshot at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in their ongoing standoff over the budget and the debt ceiling. In a letter, Biden told McCarthy: "My hope is that House Republicans can present the American public with your budget plan before Congress leaves for the Easter recess so that we can have an in-depth conversation when you return."

The White House kept up this drumbeat in Biden's absence:

"President Biden remains eager to negotiate with Speaker McCarthy about budgets. But weeks after the President released his deficit-cutting budget, House Republicans left Washington for a two-week recess without submitting their own," the spokesman said.

. . .

"It's not complicated: Speaker McCarthy -- who said passing a budget was his 'very first responsibility' -- must spell out exactly which programs hardworking families rely on he will slash in order to give tax giveaways to the super-wealthy and special interests," White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa told HuffPost.

"Will he cut health care, education, border security, manufacturing, defense spending, Medicare or support for families with children? We can't have one-sided budget negotiations -- the President put forward his priorities, the Speaker must do the same."

McCarthy, of course, has no actual budget. He doesn't even have a budget resolution (a kind of overview of a budget). He doesn't even have a summary of what such an overview might contain yet. And he's got such a razor-thin majority he may never be able to come up with any plan that will actually pass the House. So Biden is quite right to point this out in as derogatory language as he cares to.

Biden being Biden, he did make at least one cringeworthy gaffe while he was in Ireland, but it could have been worse and the Irish are probably used to Americans getting all sorts of things wrong about their history, so it didn't even make waves over there (much less here).

Back home in America, a 21-year-old man was arrested for leaking secret government documents that he had access to as a member of the Massachusetts National Guard. Apparently, he didn't do so for any overarching reason other than to impress his fellow online gamers, in a chat room. But whatever his reasons, he broke some serious laws by posting the secrets, and is facing a lot of prison time as a result.

You'd think something like this would be one of those rare bipartisan moments in politics, since it's pretty easy to condemn what he did. But you'd be wrong about that... for at least one Republican. Marjorie "Three Names" Taylor Greene immediately championed the leaker in some sort of deranged anti-Biden fit:

Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar.

That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.

And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.

Ask yourself who is the real enemy?

A young low level national guardsmen?

Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?

It seems there is no criminal behavior these days that at least some radical Republicans will fully support, in furtherance of their own extremist politics.

Speaking of Republican criminal behavior, it's time once again to check in on the legal woes of Donald Trump. This is "Exhibit A," really, in making the case that today's Republicans are just unabashedly pro-criminal. Congressional Republicans are trying to pass a bill to remove the power of local prosecutors to investigate or charge any former president, but of course there's only one who would even be affected by such a move. Trump himself is promising to investigate local district attorneys he doesn't like, if he ever gets back into the White House -- showing once again that he and the GOP are the epitome of projection, when it comes to "weaponizing the justice system" for political purposes. Republicans' knee-jerk defense of Trump could get a lot more perilous if more serious charges are brought against him, but they don't seem to care. They're going to follow him down this rabbit hole no matter what, it appears.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning on forcing Republicans to vote on a bill denouncing "defunding the F.B.I." when Congress returns, so we'll have to see how many of them vote in favor of defunding America's national police -- yet another example of GOP projection.

But back to Trump and his continuing adventure with the justice system. Fox News has apparently relented and let Trump back on their airwaves, and in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, he told one of his made-up unbelievable stories, this one about what happened to him during his arraignment in New York City:

When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in, and I'll tell you, people were crying. People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers, and they see everybody. It's a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying. They said, "I'm sorry." They said, "2024, sir. 2024." And tears were pouring down their eyes.

This was contradicted by a witness to the whole proceeding, who called Trump's story "absolute B.S." When asked how much truth there was to Trump's story, they responded: "Zero. There were zero people crying. There were zero people saying 'I'm sorry'."

Other Trump legal developments: Trump's lawyers are appealing the decision that will allow Mike Pence to testify in front of a federal grand jury about the events leading up to and during January 6th, but this appeal is quite likely to fail. The federal investigation into Trump keeping classified and other governmental documents also seems to be heading to the endgame phase. Trump just sued Michael Cohen -- the prime witness against Trump in the Stormy Daniels case -- for $500 million, just for the heck of it. This was a monumentally stupid thing for Trump to do (because it opens up all kinds of cans of worms for him in terms of depositions and discovery), but apparently Trump's lawyers couldn't talk him out of it.

Trump was forced to testify in New York this week -- for over seven hours -- in the civil case looking into tax fraud. The surprising news from this deposition was that "Mr. Trump answered questions without asserting his right against self-incrimination." That probably stems from the fact that it is a civil (not criminal) case, where invoking the Fifth Amendment can be used against you in court as evidence that you are covering up criminal behavior.

And the cherry on top of it all: the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her, is scheduled to begin on April 25. Trump (as usual) is trying to get the trial delayed, so we'll see when it actually does begin, but whenever it does it is going to move to center ring in the Trump's Legal Problems circus.

We've saved most of the Republican batcrap-crazy news for the talking points, but we have to close with one stunner. In the race to the bottom of which state Republican Party organizations can exhibit the looniest, most-unhinged behavior, Arizona is usually seen as a frontrunner. But while Michigan elevated one of the conspiracy-theory crackpots in their ranks to actually chair the state party, in Arizona a Republican actually went too far. No, really! In the state where the Republican Party lost its collective mind most spectacularly after the 2020 election, a state legislator invited a stone-cold conspiracy theorist to testify at an "election integrity" hearing. This witness falsely accused judges, lawmakers, and other Republicans of being on the payroll of Mexican drug cartels.

This sort of thing seems almost normal, for the Arizona GOP at least. But in a surprise move -- seriously, you could've knocked us over with a feather -- they actually voted to expel her. By a vote of 46-13, no less!

Maybe the fever is starting to break, down in the Grand Canyon State? One can only hope....

This week, we have to turn to Tennessee for our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award. The two members of the "Tennessee Three" (who should probably just go by the "Tennessee Two," now?) who were expelled from the legislature last week have both now been reinstated and are back at work getting under the skin of Republican legislators.

State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were booted out of office last week by the Republican supermajority. The third representative was a White woman, and survived the vote without getting expelled. But the state's procedure for replacing expelled members sent the decision back to the local governments of the areas they represented. And both of them wasted no time whatsoever in sending the two men back to the statehouse, in defiance of GOP threats to gut their local budgets.

This is all very naked and very ugly hardball politics, obviously. The Tennessee Republicans probably figured they could get away with such a bold move, mostly because few people outside the state would be paying attention. They badly miscalculated in this.

What happened instead was the Tennessee Three became big news nationwide. Joan Baez showed up to support them. President Biden called them up and invited them all to the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Tennessee. And now videos of them doing their jobs by denouncing their Republican colleagues are going viral.

In other words, they seem destined for stardom in the Democratic Party. Or at least a national stage to express their outrage at their treatment. Both have had a lot to say, very eloquently and very powerfully. Here is Representative Jones addressing the body in the debate on his expulsion vote, to give just one example:

"What you're really showing for the world is holding up a mirror to a state that is going back to some dark, dark roots," said [Representative Justin] Jones, a Vanderbilt University divinity student who spoke in a preacherly cadence. "A state in which the Ku Klux Klan was founded is now attempting another power grab by silencing the two youngest Black representatives and one of the only women Democratic women in this body. That's what this is about. Let us be real today."

Both Justins are now back where they should be -- in the offices, representing the voters that sent them there. And Tennessee law forbids the legislature from expelling them again over the same issue, so their seats are safe for now.

We used the metaphor earlier for a different reason, but it's hard not to repeat it here for the political theater which just took place in Tennessee: the Republicans awoke a sleeping giant. They were blindsided by the fact that the rest of the country saw them as abusing their political power. And the exact opposite of what they intended wound up happening -- not only were the two sent right back to the legislature, but they now have a nationwide audience and following behind them.

There wasn't even really any question, this week. The Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award goes out to both Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. And allow us to add our voice to the chorus supporting them: More power to them!

[Congratulate Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones on his official contact page, and Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson on his official contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]

We considered Senator Dianne Feinstein for this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award, but upon reflection decided she didn't deserve it.

There was an uproar this week about Feinstein, after a news report pointed out the fact that Feinstein has been missing in action in the Senate for a growing period of time, and might never make it back to Washington. The 89-year-old senator contracted shingles and has been recuperating, but she sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where her absence has caused all of Biden's judicial nominations to come to a screeching halt.

Immediately after the news story was released, Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna called for Feinstein to resign her seat.

She didn't do so -- yet -- but she did react quickly, we have to admit. She contacted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and asked that she be at least temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee.

That was the right thing to do, and it didn't take very long for Feinstein to decide to do it. Which is why we can't really give her a negative award this week.

Now, it may not be all that easy for Schumer to replace her on the committee. He would need either unanimous consent or 60 votes to do so. If the Republicans dig in their heels to delay things (which they have every motivation to do), then Feinstein would actually have to resign her Senate seat to force a replacement. So we'll have to see how things progress. Feinstein could fully recover and go back to Washington, the Republicans could magnanimously let Schumer replace her on the committee without gumming up the works, or she could actually resign if they do cause a roadblock.

So the jury's still out on this one, but we are glad that the news story and Khanna's forcing the issue has at least gotten the ball rolling. President Biden deserves to have his judicial picks confirmed by a Democratic Senate in a timely manner.

But we will admit that Feinstein was really our only candidate for the award, so we'll have to put the MDDOTW back on the shelf for another week, unless readers have their own candidates to suggest for the award.

Volume 702 (4/14/23)

We started off kind of at random today, but then built to a theme of how Republicans seem to be vying with each other for who wins the "Most Repulsive" prize. Think that's overstating things? You won't, when you finish reading them all, that's our guess.

   Taming inflation

A big milestone was reported this week, and Democrats should really point it out, after Republicans tried to make so much political hay over the issue in the last election.

"Last month, inflation dropped to a rate of only five percent. That is down from the post-COVID spike of nine percent, last year. Joe Biden and the Federal Reserve have been acting to bring inflation down, and their efforts are paying off in a big way. Inflation is falling fast, and the threat of a recession appears to be fading as well. The target inflation number is two percent, so it doesn't have that much further to go before we all get back to normal. I would call on my Republican colleagues to celebrate this success story with the same fervor that they used while denouncing high inflation last year. Because we're on the right track, and Biden and the Fed's efforts are working."

   The extremists are in charge of the GOP

Paint them all with a very extreme brush, since few of them are willing to stand up to the most extreme forces on their side.

"Make no mistake about it, folks, the ultimate goal of the Republican Party is to pass a nationwide abortion ban for every American woman, no matter what state she lives in. By any means necessary, they want to control women's bodies rather than allow them the freedom to decide for themselves. I'm old enough to remember when conservatives used to denounce -- in the strongest possible terms! -- judicial activism. We just saw a prime example of that down in Texas, where the forced-birth extremists filed a case with what can only be called a theocratic judge in order to get the result they weren't able to achieve through passing new laws. He gladly complied and for the first time ever substituted his own personal bias for not just the ability of Congress to make laws but also all the scientists and doctors at the Food and Drug Administration. Despite having no medical training whatsoever, this judge decided what drugs were ideologically allowable to the American public. This is raw judicial activism, but few Republicans are willing to say so now. They'll use any trick in the book they can think of -- because the Republican Party wants to ban all abortion nationwide, and they will continue to keep trying to do so right up until the voters remove them from power."

   Impeach Thomas now!

Somewhere, Anita Hill is sitting back and saying: "I told you so!"

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas needs to either resign or be impeached, as soon as possible. He is obviously a bought-and-paid-for judge, and thinks no ethical code forbids him from accepting lavish amounts of money and goodies from a wealthy Republican activist. This is unacceptable and if Thomas doesn't do the right thing, Congress should act instead. After all, who can defend such actions? How can anyone in Congress not immediately call for Thomas to step down in shame or be immediately impeached and removed? Is the highest court in the land truly for sale to the highest bidder? Shouldn't the Supreme Court have the strictest code of ethics in the judiciary instead of having no code of ethics at all? This is an absolute outrage!"

   How low can they go?

That's all even before getting in to who the guy really is.

"The fatcat billionaire who has been bankrolling Supreme Court Clarence Thomas is not your everyday billionaire, folks. He has a collection of Nazi memorabilia that he proudly and openly displays in his home. This includes not one but two paintings done by Adolf Hitler, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, Nazi medallions and even swastika-emblazoned linen napkins. That is the face of today's Republican Party, folks. That is who Justice Thomas pals around with. How low can Republicans sink? Is absolutely nothing out of bounds for them, these days? Have they truly no shame at all?"

   Speaking of offensive...

We're kind of building a theme, here, obviously.

"Tennessee Republicans saw fit to expel two members of the legislature for interrupting the proceedings with a protest. But what you might not realize is how many things they've let their own members get away with, without being expelled. A GOP lawmaker was accused of sexually assaulting underage girls on a team he coached and even though one of these girls recorded him essentially apologizing for doing so, they didn't kick him out -- instead they made him chairman of the education committee. You just can't make this stuff up, folks. The GOP house speaker sent texts describing pole-dancing women and his chief of staff's sexual adventures, but he was allowed to keep his seat. One Republican, just last month, made a joke about lynching, suggesting that the state consider adding 'hanging by a tree' to the list of state execution methods. In a state with a history of lynching Black people, he hasn't been reprimanded. And one Republican apparently peed on the chair of one of his own fellow Republicans, in front of other members, with absolutely no consequences whatsoever. That is who Tennessee Republicans are. They will forgive just about anything... in their own caucus. But when a Democrat annoys them, their first answer is to just kick them out completely. Welcome to the hypocrisy of today's Republican Party."

   Rather than abortion, let's just let 11-year-old girls get married!

No, seriously... you just cannot make this stuff up....

"A Republican in the Missouri state senate set the bar at the lowest possible level this week -- which as you know was a pretty tough thing to achieve, given all the other repulsive behavior from his fellow Republicans of late. Mike Moon was quite open about the forced-birth Utopia he'd like all his constituents to enjoy -- which includes allowing 11- and 12-year-olds to get married. Here's what he's had to say on the issue:"

Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I do. And guess what? They're still married.... The young man was 12, the girl was 11.... instead of running down to the abortion clinic, they allowed these 12-year-olds to marry. If we don't allow the parents to have some say, we're actually as a state removing a fundamental right from the mom and dad. It's a parents' decision to make; it's their right to make that choice.

"I guess that's what 'pro-choice' means, to Republicans. This is today's Republican Party, folks. Standing strong for the right of pregnant 11-year-old girls to get married."

   Irony is dead in the GOP

This is sort of a "make your own talking point" thing to close on, here. We were personally left speechless at the lack of comprehension as to just how ironic and amusing this truly was, for everyone who isn't a member of the MAGA cult. The backstory is that Donald Trump was apparently considering hiring Laura Loomer to work on his campaign staff, despite the fact that she's a known racist and bigot. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has her own particular brand of conspiratorial lunacy, urged Trump not to and called Loomer "mentally unstable and a documented liar." [Feel free to make your own "Takes one to know one!" joke, here.] But the thing that caused our jaw to drop was what Greene posted to Telegram after Loomer attacked her personally. It is the absolute height of projection, really. Because it is impossible to read it and not think of a few other instances of this being true in today's Republican Party (to say nothing of Greene herself). So we leave you with just Greene's words, and trust you to come up with your own outrageous response to her:

Laura Loomer and others like her make a living by keeping you outraged with made up salacious rumors about people like me in our government. Trust me, they know NOTHING!

Ask yourself, how do they know more than you know by posting known public information? They don't have any more information than you do. They just pretend and lie to make money off of you. Be wary of people who always promise the "truth" but never deliver. Be careful of trusting a plan that never comes to fruition.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground