McCarthyite Tactics
Via Andrew Sullivan:
Liz Cheney ratchets up the disgusting campaign led by Senator Chuck Grassley to impugn DOJ appointees who represented Gitmo detainees. Ackerman:
You know, [the lawyers who] provided the representation that the Rehnquist and Roberts Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled those detainees are entitled? And which even the military commissions provide for? Instead, there’s this McCarthyite tactic of calling Justice Department lawyers the “Gitmo Nine,” a name that oh-so-cleverly suggests that those lawyers were themselves detained at Guantanamo.
Liz Cheney, of course, redubbed them the “Al-Qaeda Seven.” And she wants names named. How very McCarthyite of her.
Grassley knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s taking one of the strengths of the American justice system — the fact that everyone is entitled to legal representation — and implying that it’s unseemly. It’s a testament to the weakness of his character that he will never forthrightly accuse these attorneys of what he’s implying — sympathy with accused terrorists — in a way that they could refute. What a pathetic excuse for a man. Those of us in the media have an obligation to call this smear campaign what it is.
I won’t hold my breath on the media calling them out.
Could someone tell me why Republicans hate our justice system and why anyone takes their Constitution blather and Founding Fathers quoting seriously? These people would have labeled John Adams a terrorist sympathizer.
We don’t need the media to call them out, we need them to stop treating this stuff as real news. This is the kind of thing made to order for the Weekly World News. Just because it’s Liz Cheney, doesn’t mean it’s not bat shit crazy.
It is crazy, sick and newsworthy. She is flatly saying that professionalism is criminal and being ideologically pure is the desired state in the DOJ. I doubt there will be an Edward R. Murrow moment for the press, but this is a dangerous and radical change in American politics that everybody should be aware of.
I agree, Jason. This is dangerous. It is also shows how little they believe in our Constitution. Cheney and Grassley are despicable.
Cheney and Grassley are despicable and are blatantly partisan. They want to “name names” on members of the Justice Dept. appointed by Obama – did they forget that SCOTUS ruled that the detainees were entitled to trials?
I believe that people doing their jobs defending the constitution even when it is unpopular, are heros.
Wow. Maybe there’s hope for David yet.
Still, would you support the appointment of a lawyer who had a history of successfully representing the KKK on First Amendment issues to a high position in the Justice Department? What about a dozen of them?
And yes, I understand and respect the position taken by David.
Dumb question, Greg. Would those be court-appointed KKK lawyers? Al Qaeda didn’t hire any of these lawyers.
Comment by Geezer on 3 March 2010 at 3:26 pm:
Dumb question, Greg. Would those be court-appointed KKK lawyers? Al Qaeda didn’t hire any of these lawyers.
TRANSLATION: I’d really rather not answer that question, because it might just expose my hypocrisy.
Absolutely, Rhymey. I’d support them 100%, particularly if they were from the ACLU.
Yes, I would support their hiring if they were simply assigned the KKK cases, as these lawyers were the al Qaeda cases. If you want me to say I wouldn’t hire a particular lawyer who had come up with some ingenious KKK defense, then no, I wouldn’t want to hire such a person — and that person wouldn’t take the job, either, because he couldn’t take the pay cut.
C’mon, really? I wouldn’t want to answer a question because you would call me a hypocrite? Since when? That’s never stopped me before.
Now acknowledge what a stupid example it is. The only KKK trial that involved habeas corpus issues occurred in South Carolina during Reconstruction — it was suspended, IIRC, because so many of the police and court officers were members of the organization.
A better question would be whether I would hire a lawyer who had defended a right-wing domestic terrorist of the McVeigh sort, since that’s closer to parallel and, who knows, we might actually end up with such domestic terrorists treated the way some Guantanamo detainees were. Not likely, I realize, since they’re domestic, and we can’t declare war on domestic terrorism…actually, I’m not sure about that, either. That’s the trouble with subverting the constitution — once you start you just don’t know where to stop.
“This is the kind of thing made to order for the Weekly World News.”-cassandra m
Absolutely right on!
“Still, would you support the appointment of a lawyer who had a history of successfully representing the KKK on First Amendment issues to a high position in the Justice Department? What about a dozen of them?”
Hell, yes. That shows they’re smart attorneys. And they probably didn’t graduate from Liberty.
Ted Olsen disagrees with Liz Cheney – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/liz-cheneys-attack-on-al_n_485329.html
who gives a squirt about an all grown-up lucky sperm specimen reciting daddy’s platitudes? friggin’ rote whore.
inconsequential persons acting as if they are not makes me laugh.