Nobody Cares About Federalism, Unusual Candor Edition

One of the most enduring manifestations of perhaps the longest-running farce in American politics is the idea that public officials who vote for every federal abortion regulation to ever come down the pike and nominally support a constitutional amendment that would make obtaining a pre-viability abortion first degree murder in all 50 states oppose Roe v. Wade because they want the issue of abortion “sent back to the states.” To his credit, the country’s most prominent anti-choice litigator is at least honest:

There are conservatives who argue against federal meddling in states’ rights on abortion. [Not really. –ed.] ”We’re not fighting over states’ rights,” Bopp says. “What we’re fighting over is protecting the unborn.”

The 20-week ban is unlikely to even get a vote in the Senate, and President Obama has promised a veto. Bopp is unperturbed. “Legislation is often a process, not an event. It takes time.” And they’ve waited this long.

Next you’ll tell me that the faction that walked out of the Democratic convention because the other faction wouldn’t endorse a federal slave code didn’t really secede over states’s rights. Someone alert Ramesh Ponnuru!