What McCain really said.

I wrote earlier today that I doubted that Senator McCain used the term "states rights" when he made a statement about the values of the Republican party. It is characteristic of the New York Times to overuse this term. (I particularly notice it in reports about the Supreme Court.) Here's what McCain actually said, as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

"The constitutional amendment we are debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "It usurps from the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed, and imposes a federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts them."