From the AP. If you've wondered about reincarnation, wonder no more. Einstein's in South Carolina in the person of the state's former Republican Party chairman.

"At the end of the day, you're fighting legislation that's already passed," said former South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson, describing the fight to defund the health care law [ObamaCare] as a lost cause.

Dawson may want to trot down to the state capitol in Columbia to pick up one of those nifty pamphlets that educate kids (in the simplest terms) about the legislative process. In our democratic system, and under the rule of law, politicians and citizens can contest existing laws. Pretty special, huh?

Katon Dawson's bio has him as a segregation opponent back in the day. But once, segregation (popularly known as Jim Crow) was the law in the Palmetto State. Legislation created the law. Or was it done through fiat? Hmm...

Fugitive slave laws (remember Dred Scott?) were once... laws. But they should have stood. Those goofy abolitionists and that hick lawyer from Illinois needed to have bugged-out.

The last anyone heard, Moses wasn't living on Capitol Hill or at the White House (though there's some residual belief that the prez is Moses incarnate).

"But it's the law," say droll and droning Democrats about ObamaCare. "You can't challenge it. How cheeky and undemocratic of Tea Party activists and grassroots conservatives. How dare they violate our -- we mean, the people's will."

Of course, it's an inconvenient truth that there's no people's will for ObamaCare, just as there wasn't much will or enthusiasm for Stalin's five-year plans. But let's not quibble.

On cue (not "As if..."), establishment Republican phonies (phony because they like to call themselves "conservatives," when they should be branded "conservators" -- of big government) parrot the same Democrat talking point: "But... but it's the law. You can't have the legislative process muck up ObamaCare. You can't push to defund ObamaCare. And mea culpa, we were wrong to even suggest a one-year delay in ObamaCare implementation. We're sorry. Grover, tell them we're really sorry."

Here's a sampling of the usual suspects among "veteran" Republicans who find challenging ObamaCare a big misstep. Again, from the AP:

"It's time for someone to act like a grown-up in this process," former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu argues, faulting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and tea party Republicans in the House as much as President Barack Obama for taking an uncompromising stance.

That's Governor John Sununu, who foisted oddball David Souter on the Supreme Court and, as the first Bush's first chief of staff, helped guide George I to an ignominious reelection defeat at the hands of the debauched Bill Clinton and the flaky, vengeful Ross Perot.

Moreover, as reported in the Miami Herald via Capitol Hill Cubans, Sununu and former Democratic congressman Bill Delahunt are pushing "to obtain U.S. approval for testing of a diabetic foot drug by Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CGEB)."

The CGEB was personally created by Fidel Castro in the late 1980s, in order to foment its foreign medical propaganda and obtain hard-currency through questionable biotech exports.

Oh, and Delahunt's and Sununu's involvement may be a violation of American law, so asserts the Capitol Hill Cubans. But challenging some laws is okay and in any manner you please -- if there's money involved.

Yet another veteran Republican steps out for attribution in the AP story.

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is just as pointed, saying this about the tea party-fueled refusal to support spending measures that include money for Obama's health care law: "It never had a chance."

Haley Barbour, who served Mississippians ably as their governor, began -- and appears to be ending -- his career as a DC fixer. Barbour was one of Washington's most successful lobbyists and an insider's insider. Closing ranks around the Republican establishment is more instinct than anything else for Barbour -- and a good move, financially.

Then there's New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte, who ripped Ted Cruz and Mike Lee up one side and down the other in a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans. Why? Because Cruz, Lee, and outside conservative groups energized the grassroots to call Ayotte and other squishy Senate Republicans on voting for a motion to proceed with ObamaCare funding.

Ayotte and her comrades thought they pulled a fast one, only to be outed for their ruse, and Ayotte went apoplectic.

Jeffery Lord sums up the reason for Ayotte's ire in an excellent exposé at American Spectator:

What does this behavior of Ayotte's say? What does it say about the other named GOP senators -- Indiana's Dan Coats and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson -- in the story? Not to mention those who were not mentioned but were part of what the paper called the "lynch mob" that was out for Cruz and Lee? What does it telegraph?

Simply put, this behavior screams; "It's all about ME!!!"

This past week, Lord trained his sights on New York Republican congressman Peter King, a self-described "Reagan Republican" and champion of limited government who finds Ted Cruz beyond the pale.

Writes Lord for the American Spectator:

Peter King's strategic endgame as a "Reagan conservative" (a description of which he boasted the other day in a television interview) supporting limited government is to set up yet another federal bureaucracy -- this one inside the Department of Justice and dedicated to involving the federal government in elder abuse. No word on King's site as to the cost, of course. Much less -- and notably -- any explanation about what in the Constitution suggests the federal government of the United States should be doing getting itself involved in an issue that should be dealt with by local and state governments if not private non-profits.

Hypocrisy, self-interest, venality, double-dealing, and plain stupidity have been plentiful along the banks of the Potomac since the capitol opened for business. Let's throw eighty years of GOP cravenness into the stew for spice.

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and their allies were right to press for defunding as the opening blast in the war to shatter ObamaCare. ObamaCare is a statist power grab of unprecedented proportions and a wrecking ball aimed at the nation's health-care system and economy.

As Mark Steyn is given to say, the U.S. is one of the brokest nations on the planet. Broke beyond our comprehension.

Broke and living in a land of crushed liberties is worse than going through life fat and stupid. But don't tell establishment Republicans that.