Right Side of the Rainbow

It takes a moment to overcome the shock of the AP’s mendacity in describing Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, as a “moderate Democrat.” (Her 2004 ADA rating: 100%. Only in the left-wing world of the legacy media does a perfect score from the ADA qualify you as a moderate.) But then you come to this:

“I happen to feel that it would be very difficult for me to vote yes on a [Supreme Court] nominee I thought would overturn Roe vs. Wade,” she said.

Followed by this:

In her remarks Monday, Feinstein also said the Supreme Court under Chief Justice William Rehnquist had restricted congressional authority to pass legislation.

[…]

“I would like to come away with the view that he [John Roberts] was not going to be one who would further restrict and bind lawmakers’ hands and keep them from enacting legislation that the people of this country want,” she said.

Of course, Roe bound the hands of legislators, state and federal, who seek to give many people in this country what they want by putting limits on the legal availability of abortion. Indeed, liberals fear the overturning of Roe precisely because they know that Congress and several state legislatures will act expeditiously to erect impediments to the practice of abortion.

We’re left then with three possibilities in construing the senator’s remarks:

• she doesn’t understand the nature of the holding in Roe;

• she dissembles when complaining that the Court is “bind[ing] lawmakers’ hands;”

• or she thinks that the people should be given what they want, but only if what they want doesn’t conflict with what she wants.

The answer I leave to you.