Trial By Fire

I got lost trying to follow the various stories this past week about health care reform, Eric Massa, and the like, but one story this week that did get my attention was Liz Cheney's attempt to impugn the integrity of seven unnamed Justice Department lawyers representing al-Qaeda suspects. The former Vice President's dumber daughter suggested that the mere idea of these lawyers representing these terror suspects amounted to lack of patriotism and even treason. The Cheneys may have gone too far - may have? no, did! - this time. The fiercest critics of Liz Cheney and her McCarthyism-style tactics were conservative lawyers, saying that Liz's interpretation of the Constitution - enemy combatants are not entitled to fair trials - make a mockery of the fairness this country's system of laws strives for.

You know you've crossed the line as a conservative when even Michael Mukasey (George Walker Bush's last Attorney General) and Ken Starr speak out against you.

Upholding the rights of odious defendants in criminal trials is a time-honored American tradition that dates back to before the founding of the nation. John Adams famously defended the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, and even Nazi war criminals received trials at Nuremberg. For Liz Cheney to suggest that al-Qaeda defendants are not deserving of a fair trial simply because we don't like these people is more un-American than she thinks the acts of their lawyers are.

Listening to Liz Cheney speak after having listened to her father for too long, it's obvious that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. In fact, the apple is still on the tree.