States' rights a conservative, Republican party ideal? No, not really. In her story U.S. Trying to Block Calif. on Emissions over at today's Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin reports that Bush administration Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has been involved in a

concerted, behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to try to generate opposition to California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, according to documents obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"If Secretary Peters has concerns about whether California's application meets the legal standards set forth in the Clean Air Act, she should submit comments to EPA making her case," wrote Waxman, chairman of the oversight panel, which negotiated for three months to have the documents released. "Instead of taking this action, however, she apparently sought and received White House approval to use taxpayer funds to mount a lobbying campaign designed to inject political considerations into the decision."