Liz Cheney Would Call John Adams a Terrorists Pal: Ann Woolner
March 09, 2010, 9:20 PM EST
Commentary by Ann Woolner
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Liz Cheney, meet John Adams. Perhaps you have heard of him.
A Founding Father of our nation, he became Americas first vice president and its second president.
But before all that, back when he was practicing law in Boston, Adams did precisely what you say should disqualify lawyers from representing his country.
He defended the enemy. Charged with murder for the Boston massacre of 1770, lets call his clients the Redcoat Nine.
Adams advocated for them so well that he persuaded a jury to acquit seven of the nine, including the captain charged with ordering the deadly shooting of rioting revolutionaries.
And he was proud of it. Adams would later call the episode one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.
If he had done the modern-day version of that and then taken a job at the Justice Department, Liz Cheney would complain. She would say that shows the president and attorney general arent serious about defeating the enemy.
Thats what she says about Attorney General Eric Holder because he hired lawyers who represented Guantanamo Bay detainees in cases against the U.S. government.
Ominous Music
An ad produced by a group she cofounded called Keep America Safe labeled the lawyers the Al Qaeda 7. Ominous music plays while a video shows Holder promising during the presidential campaign that an Obama administration would hire people who share our values.
She implies these lawyers, plus two more Holder initially named, aided and abetted the enemy and might now be dangerously influencing the nations approach to terrorism.
Personnel is policy here, she told Bill OReilly on Fox News last week.
If former vice president Dick Cheneys daughter actually believes what she is saying, she needs more than a history lesson. She needs a civics lesson, too.
These lawyers, like Adams, are aiding and abetting the American legal system. It works best when opposing sides have lawyers dedicated to capably advocating for their clients, however unpopular.
The lawyer who defends a child rapist doesnt support raping children. The attorney who represents a multiple murderer doesnt approve of killing. What they approve of, no doubt, is making the system work.
Determining Guilt
Besides, the whole point of the system, whether civilian or military, is to determine whether the accused committed the offense. Cheney skips over that step in claiming that these lawyers clients were terrorists.
A lawyer herself, Cheney should know this.
But that knowledge doesnt show up in her rhetoric as a conservative pundit, so Republicans are lining up to try to educate her.
Attorneys who have represented Guantanamo detainees are good, honorable lawyers and uphold the finest traditions of our country by taking on unpopular clients, said Kenneth Starr on MSNBC. The law school dean at Pepperdine University previously was President Bill Clintons nemesis.
It is part of the responsibility of lawyers to represent such people, Theodore Olson told Politico. As solicitor general during George W. Bushs administration, Olson defended the presidents policies.
Republican Statement
And 19 lawyers, including Starr and other prominent Republicans, signed a statement this week bearing precisely that message and more.
Such attacks also undermine the justice system by delegitimizing the notion that the accused should have lawyers, the statement says.
Its signers include Larry D. Thompson, second in command at John Ashcrofts Justice Department and now general counsel to PepsiCo Inc.
Whether before a military commission or civilian court, you need a good defense lawyer to offer the strongest arguments based on thoroughly researched facts, says the letter.
In these cases, defenders of the detainees fared better before the Supreme Court than the defenders of Bush-Cheney policies. The court ruled repeatedly that the administration had violated constitutional, international and statutory law in its handling of suspected terrorists.
Fit for Service
So, what makes the detainees lawyers anything less than promoters of the rule of law? How does that make them unfit for service at the Justice Department? Could it be that their very success is what most bothers the former vice presidents daughter?
She would apparently prefer the Bush-Cheney lawyers who essentially excused torture and advised that during a time of war the president didnt have to follow the law.
Two of those lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, at best used poor judgment, according to an internal report released last month. At worst they engaged in recklessness or professional misconduct, according to ethics investigators who were overruled in the report.
Or perhaps Ms. Cheney longs for the days when you had to prove yourself an ideologically pure conservative to get even career posts at the Justice Department.
Nonetheless, Holder has himself to blame for not heading off the Cheney attack. If he had disclosed the names of the lawyers back in November when Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa first asked for them, if he had spelled out precisely how any conflicts of interest are handled, he might have denied Cheney an opening.
An administration that claims transparency cant go around hiding information, even when it suspects its critics will abuse whatever they are told.
But then, neither should a lawyer claim that the nation is somehow weakened when it is held to the rule of law.
The first vice president knew that. The daughter of the last vice president should, too.
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--Editors: Jim Rubin, James Greiff.
-0- Mar/10/2010 02:00 GMT
To contact the writer of this column: Ann Woolner in Atlanta at
awoolner@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this column: James Greiff at
jgreiff@bloomberg.net.
