A red herring

I love this quote from Ray Haynes, a Republican from Southern California, on the recently passed bill designating marriage as between "two persons" instead of between a "man and a woman" in his state, and which Schwarzenegger will veto, to his peril:

"Engaging in social experimentation is not the role of the legislature."

Remember when Republicans were criticizing Massachussets judges for "legislating from the bench"? They said it was up to the legislature to decide these issues. Now, apparently, it is not, because it is "social experimentation". Why have we not heard this argument before? Because it´s a new line of attack, against a new branch of government, which has realized the hypocrisy in restricting marriage rights to heterosexuals. It is now abundantly clear that conservatives are not concerned with "activist judges legislating from the bench". Indeed, what if some "activist judge" said that there were no right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution, or declared Bush´s resident worker program illegal? My bet is you wouldn´t hear a peep from social conservatives about "activist judges" then.

The "legislating from the bench" argument is a red herring, devised as a clever rhetorical tool for conservatives to defend their bigoted social agenda. We knew it before. Mr. Haynes has just brought it out for everyone to see.