Since the Supreme Court declared a free-for-all on laws which restrict abortion, Republicans have been in a race to see which state can produce the most extreme forced-birth laws possible. Idaho Republicans seem to have won the award for "most extreme idea yet," as their party convention just rejected an amendment to their party platform which would have allowed for an exception to the state's ban on abortions if the mother was in "lethal danger." The vote wasn't even close: 412-164. So that's where the GOP race to the extremes will inevitably end up, one assumes. If they had their way, Idaho Republicans would condemn all women with ectopic pregnancies to needless death, plain and simple. The fact that if the mother dies the baby will also die doesn't seem to concern them in the least.

The Idaho GOP is out in front of the rest of the Republican Party, but not by much. Before the Dobbs decision was handed down, the big push by anti-abortion politicians was to limit the weeks covered. Abortions would be allowable up to 15 weeks, or 13, or even just six. After that point, abortions would not be allowed. But now that they've achieved their goal at the Supreme Court, the forced-birth contingent is freed from any semblance of rationality. Right now the arguments being fought politically mostly center on the other two exceptions commonly included in laws (up to this point, at any rate) -- allowing abortions in cases of rape and/or incest. The 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio will just be the first such tragic case in the national news, as more and more of these dire situations will be faced by more and more women. It's a lot easier to pontificate about the number of weeks in a political setting than it is to try to explain forcing a fourth-grader to carry her rapist's baby to term.

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And so, once again, we find ourselves in a very familiar place. Senator Joe Manchin has just yanked the rug out from under the lion's share of what he was supposedly negotiating in good faith with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (and the entire rest of the Democratic Party). Manchin let it be known that two of the biggest things he himself had said he was going to strongly support (in the pared-down version of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan) were suddenly verboten and off the table. In other words, Joe Manchin successfully wasted everyone's time -- once again -- for months on end.

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How Americans feel about "the economy" often depends on what the biggest problems or fears they have at any particular moment. Right now, by many indicators, the economy is doing great -- record numbers of people are working, record numbers of jobs are available, employers are hiring people in droves, unemployment is within 0.2 percent of the record low, wages are going up, most of the supply chain problems have been worked out, and COVID has faded into the background of daily life for most people. That's all good news, obviously, but that's not how most consumers see the economy these days. What is on the top of people's minds is inflation, and nothing exemplifies inflation more than the price of gas.

Gasoline is different than any other commodity people buy in one very big way -- a way most of us never really think about. Unlike a gallon of milk or a box of cornflakes or a stack of lumber, the price of gasoline is in everyone's face, all the time. Drive through pretty much any town in the entire country, and you will be faced every couple blocks with a giant sign with a giant number on it -- the price of a gallon of gas. What other price is so ubiquitous? What other product is advertised by every place that sells it with a giant price sign out front? None that I know of. Gas prices are unavoidable, plain and simple.

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A window of opportunity in Congress is going to close soon. As usual in these things, Senator Joe Manchin is the key deciding factor as to whether Democrats will hit this window or miss it. In fact, there are actually two windows, a big one and one with a specific focus -- and Manchin is holding both of them up at once.

The big window is that this month seems to be the final chance for passing any portion of the Build Back Better bill. If it doesn't get done before the August month-long congressional break, then it's just not going to happen (at least until after the midterm election -- who knows what the lame duck Congress will do....). And there are several pieces of this under discussion, including lowering the cost of prescription drugs and doing something about climate change. But the piece that desperately needs attention is the fact that the COVID-sponsored boost to the Obamacare health insurance subsidies is going to turn into a pumpkin at the end of this year. It was initially only a temporary measure, passed in the midst of President Biden's first big accomplishment (the COVID relief package) right after he took office. Most Democrats want to now either make it permanent or at least extend it another year or two. Manchin, so far, is not on board.

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After an extended break (which was interrupted by the unplanned sixth of these live hearings), the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th reconvened today for the seventh such hearing. Today's hearing centered around the violent rightwing militia groups that attacked the United States Capitol, and how they were encouraged to do so by Donald Trump.

At the end of the hearing, Vice Chair Liz Cheney previewed what will be the next hearing (which she promised would happen "next week"), when the committee will walk through Trump's actions on January 6th itself.

There were really four star witnesses today, two of whom appeared live, one of whom appeared on video, and one who remained anonymous, with his voice scrambled electronically -- for his own safety, just like someone testifying at a mob trial.

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After a holiday break, the House Select Committee on January 6th will reconvene their public hearing schedule tomorrow, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern time. The only thing they've revealed (as of this writing) is that tomorrow's testimony will focus on the role played by right-wing militias such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and will also highlight Donald Trump's actions (and, more importantly, inaction) on January 6th. No witness lists have been made public yet, so we might have to wait until tomorrow to even know who will be there (although there is already plenty of in-depth media speculation about who could show up).

This is all in keeping with the committee playing its cards very close to the vest all the way throughout this miniseason of "must-see TV." Nobody knows what will happen until the last minute -- which does indeed build tension and "buzz" with the audience. We've already had one hearing cancelled at the last minute (during the first week) and one surprise hearing that wasn't announced until the day before (at the beginning of what was supposed to be a two-week July 4th break). Right now, the big unanswered question is: how many more public hearings are we going to get?

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President Joe Biden capped off a pretty good week with a pretty good speech today, given right before he signed an executive order to do what he could to protect women's rights. Biden did so, of course, in response to the "extreme" Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.

In his remarks, the president got visibly angry at one particular point, a point that should be repeated by every Democrat running for office this year as many times as possible. Biden was speaking about the report that a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who had been impregnated due to being raped was denied an abortion and had to travel to neighboring Indiana to get one. Here's what Biden had to say about it:

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Hey, kiddies, it's time to play "shadow boxing with Joe Manchin" once again! Yes, his teasing game has begun anew, where Democrats get their hopes up that Senator Manchin will finally agree to pass something -- anything -- from President Joe Biden's agenda, in the hopes of counteracting the predicted coming "red wave" in November's midterm elections. Once again, Manchin is playing it coy, as he is "in negotiations" with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but has not actually committed to much of anything. The deadline this time around is the end of July, right before all of Congress disappears into the summer breeze for an entire month. Of course, they're all still on their two-week July 4th vacation this week, so nothing will really happen until next week, which leaves a rather abbreviated window.

The game is the same as it has always been: Manchin acts like a little tease, continually getting everyone else's hopes up, but then at the last minute he manufactures a brand new reason why he can't support the deal he just spent many weeks/months negotiating -- and the whole thing falls apart. Manchin, in the meantime, gets all the Sunday morning political interviews he wants, and generally is the center of Washington's attention while the dance goes on.

To say this is frustrating to all the other Democrats is understating the matter, at this point. Which is why we went with "Here We Go Again" as a title, today. It feels like "fool me five or six times..." at this point, it really does.

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Control of the United States Senate will be one of the biggest political prizes fought over in the 2022 midterm elections this November. So far, out of all the 2022 Senate races, Democrats look fairly well positioned to either hold onto their thin majority or perhaps even expand it by one or two. In what is supposed to be a very Republican-friendly year, the GOP's chances of taking the Senate seem dimmer than ever. This is due to one very big reason: personality matters. The quality of the candidates matter.

This isn't the first time Republicans may be blowing what could be a big victory for them. Remember Christine "I Am Not A Witch" O'Donnell? Or Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin? Nominating complete nutjobs to Senate races is not exactly a new thing for the GOP, in other words. And in our current Trumpian era, they're going to be relying on some very nutty candidates indeed.

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I am blowing off work today, everyone. I actually wrote a new column yesterday and I had a rather large backlog of things to do in the outside world that needed attention today (one of which was to go to our friendly local Department of Motor Vehicles office... sigh), and by the time I got all of them done, I was too frazzled to write today.

So instead, here's the very first Independence Day column I ever wrote. Because pursuing happiness should truly be a year-round effort, and not confined to one particular day.

Originally published July 4th, 2007

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
-- Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

That line will be widely quoted across this land today, in parks and bandstands, on radio and in newsprint, from California to the New York islands, in countless big-city parades and from a myriad of small-town gazebos.

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