OCA said:
Because of our vehement arguing for states rights the past umpteen decades.
Well, you and I don't disagree often, OCA, but we definitely part company on this one. I believe Congress acted properly here, yet I wear my states rights credentials proudly. Here's the difference, as I see it:
When the federall government, in the person of an intrusive, micro-managing judiciary, tells states (and ultimately, therefore, the community and the individual) what their attitudes and actions must be on matters of behavior such as abortion and homosexual marriage, that's a violation of states rights.
When this same tyrannical judiciary is able to make the leap from "Congress shall make no law concerning religion" to "no government at ANY level, from the U.S. Congress to the board of directors of a lemonade stand, shall as much as utter God's disgusting, hurtful name", that's a violation of state's rights.
When a clearly plausible possibility exists that an American is about to be deprived of her life without due process of law, and Congress steps in to determine jurisdiction in the matter, as is its duty under the U.S. Constitution, I cannot, for the life of me, see a violation of state's rights.
Moreover, I see - as you do - politicians paying a price down the road for their hypocritical stand on the Schiavo case. We differ in that I see those being hurt as the liberals who - overnight - underwent the miraculous transformation into states-rights advocates. They did this for the same reason they do anything - political expediency. But what was convenient today is going to bite them on the ass - hard - in the very near future. How are they going to justify blocking the nomination of a strict constitutionalist judge tomorrow, in light of their rabid federalism today? They've shot themselves.
You'll notice that the smart liberal - the one they're sending to the big show in '08 - stayed out of this one.