Politicians will be politicians

Congressional Republicans talk a good game about supporting states' rights, the Mobile Register reports today, but they're fine with greater federal control if it advances their agenda on any given issue, like the Terri Schiavo case or the location of natural gas terminals.

As a Tulane University law professor says, "If there is an important policy objective that they really care about, states' rights just doesn't deter them." And when it comes to corporate regulation, a University of Alabama law professor observes, "[P]eople are mighty selective of how interventionist they want the federal government to be."