If It Ain’t Broke

by digby

I was going to write a post about how surprising and hopeful it was that some of the right wing warrior lawyers had criticized the heinous Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol ads questioning the loyalty of Justice department lawyers who had defended terrorist suspects. But then I read this and realized that it wasn’t out of any great respect for the rule of law or even the integrity of the legal profession, but rather something more predictable: some of the lawyers who are being criticized are actually carrying out the right’s preferred policies in their new positions:

Ted Olson, who served as Bush’s solicitor general, says he has the “greatest respect” for lawyers who represented Gitmo clients; they were acting “consistent with the finest traditions of the legal profession,” he says. He calls the attacks on one of the targets, Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, “outrageous.” Four years ago, Katyal represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver, in a landmark Supreme Court case that overturned the military tribunals that Bush created. (Katyal did a “marvelous job” on the case, says Olson.) But two months ago, Katyal argued before a U.S. appeals court a controversial Obama administration position against giving accused terrorists at the American prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, the right to challenge their detention in federal court—a stand that has drawn stiff criticism from human-rights groups.

Another top Justice lawyer Cheney’s group is targeting, Tony West, who runs the civil division, once represented accused “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh. But since joining Justice, West has repeatedly signed off on legal briefs opposing the release of Gitmo detainees—and approved appeals when federal judges ordered the detainees released, according to court records. “To demonize [the Justice lawyers] on the basis of who they represented in the past is wrong,” says Jack Goldsmith, another former top Justice lawyer under Bush.

Well, he would say that wouldn’t he? He worked for the Bush administration.

But I’m assuming that most of the right wing attorneys who are criticizing the Cheney ad are either those whose client list isn’t filled with upstanding patriotic Christians or are aware that many of the lawyers Cheney is calling out are actually carrying out Bush administration policies. Either way, there’s no point in making a stink about it. Why scream and yell about politicizing the DOJ when it’s working for you?

.