Federalism Repealed?

I got home from the gym the other night just in time to hear President Obama repeal federalism. Okay, maybe, hopefully, that is an exaggeration. But consider the following from President Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress -- to put it in context, he was speaking of maintaining accountability as to how the funds authorized under the "stimulus" package are spent:

I have told each member of my Cabinet as well as mayors and governors across the country that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend. I have appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud.

First of all, this underscores the reservations coming from governors and state legislatures regarding the strings attached to the "stimulus" money going to the states. The broader implication however seems to be that mayors and state governors work for the president. They do not; while state governments are subject to certain federal laws under the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution, they are not mere subdivisions of the national government the way that provincial governments are in European countries. The Tenth Amendment was intended to guarantee that states maintain sovereignty over powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution. This was intended to provide a check on the power of the national government. This has been substantially weakened over the course of the past 190 years, but liberals in Washington seem bent on finishing off the job. Finally, a number of states are beginning to buck. The language is that of nullification.

Nullification is the doctrine that states can declare a federal law to be unconstitutional and therefore declare that law to be null and void. The Framers saw nullification as a valid means of checking federal power. Consider the following thought from James Madison, considered to be the "Father of the Constitution", as stated in Federalist #46:

...should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States... or even a warrantable measure be so... the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps, refusal to co-operate with the officers of the Union; the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassments created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, difficulties not to be despised... [emphasis added].