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**DECEMBER 13, 2023**

On the Prospect website

The Case for Interest Rate Cuts

The Federal Reserve won't talk about it. A new study shows why they
must. BY DAVID DAYEN

Republicans Want to Ban All Abortions, Even if It Kills Mothers

The anti-choice mask comes off in Texas. BY RYAN COOPER

Labor Leader Ai-jen Poo Confronts 'the Biggest Driver of Economic
Inequality That Nobody Talks About.'

Care for children, the elderly and disabled is among the
lowest-paying industries. Poo thinks federal investment could become
reality. BY JESSICA GOODHEART

Kuttner on TAP

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**** Midweek Medley

Harvard keeps President Claudine Gay; New York redistricting could flip
the House; Biden finally gets publicly tougher with Bibi.

There is an old rule in journalism that a column is about one thing.
Sometimes you have to break the rules. There is just too much to write
about.

Harvard Trustees Back President Claudine Gay. It took the 11 members of
Harvard's top governing body known as the Harvard Corporation almost
three days to make a decision, but in the end they issued a unanimous
statement of support

that was just a bit qualified but more than good enough.

What took the extra time was a plagiarism charge that far-right
provocateurs Christopher Rufo and Christopher Brunet boasted that they
had waited to release until just the right moment Sunday to do maximum
damage. But the charge turned out to be a canard-that's French for a
duck that won't quack.

A special shout-out is due

**The Harvard Crimson**, which has been at least half a day ahead of

**The Boston Globe** and

**The New York Time**s at each stage of the story. **Crimson** reporters
reviewed all of the supposedly plagiarized passages

against the originals, contacted every one of the scholars whose work
was supposedly plagiarized, and with one partial exception (Carol
Swain), all said that these were innocent errors and not plagiarism. The
Harvard Corporation, in reviewing the plagiarism charge, must have
relied on the

**Crimson** to do a lot of their homework.

New York Will Get Another Redistricting. Yesterday, the Court of
Appeals, New York state's highest court, ruled that New York must get
newly drawn districts by February 28, 2024, in time for the 2024
congressional election. This is a very big deal. All by itself, it could
flip the House, since New York lost three seats in the 2022 midterm,
when districts were gerrymandered in the Republicans' favor.

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That fiasco was partly the result of the court having a center-right
chief judge, Janet DiFiore
,
a onetime Republican appointed by Andrew Cuomo in 2015, who voted with
court conservatives in a 4-3 ruling to throw out a map drawn by the
legislature
.
The new court-ordered redistricting then favored Republicans.

Cuomo's successor, Kathy Hochul, attempted to repeat the same pattern
by appointing another right-wing judge, Hector LaSalle, but the
legislature refused to confirm him. A humiliated Hochul then elevated
progressive Judge Rowan Wilson to the chief judge post, and named
another progressive, Caitlin Halligan, to succeed him. Yesterday's
ruling by the divided court was also 4-3, this time in a way that will
help Democrats.

The Cook Report lists three New York seats currently held by Republicans
as toss-ups, even before redistricting
.
And Democrats also have a good shot at taking back the seat vacated by
George Santos.

Better Late Than Never? Now that much of Gaza has been reduced to
rubble, President Biden has finally chastised Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu. Speaking at a Washington fundraiser, Biden said
,
"He's a good friend but I think he has to change." And he warned that
Israel is losing the world's support because of "the indiscriminate
bombing that takes place."

This is progress, but since so many of Israel's bombs and rockets are
reliant on U.S. military aid, this has become Biden's war. It remains
to be seen if and how Biden will follow up words with deeds-including
conditioning aid on drastically altered policy. Netanyahu's response
was somewhere between defiant and contemptuous. Words alone make Biden
seem both weak and complicit.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

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