Patterico's Pontifications

3/7/2010

The New McCarthy

Filed under: Law,Politics — DRJ @ 2:44 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Liz Cheney has been compared to Sen. Joseph McCarthy because of this video on the “Al Qaeda 7” attorneys:

Her accusers? One was Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine, although he later clarified:

“PAUL adds: The Huffington Post has a story about conservative reaction (or at least the reaction of a handful of conservatives) to the video. The story says I declared that what Cheney did is comparable if not potentially worse than the notorious anti-communist crusades launched by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. It then quotes some of the things I told Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein.

The quotes themselves are accurate, but I think the characterization of what I said is somewhat misleading. In response to Stein’s questions asking me to compare the video to “McCarthyism,” I said the implication that the DOJ lawyers share al Qaeda’s values is almost certainly false. I also said that some of McCarthy’s assertions were true and others were false (or unfounded, I’m not sure which word I used).

That, if I recall correctly, was the extent of my willingness to compare the video to “McCarthyism.” I don’t think I said or implied that the video is comparable to or worse than the totality of what goes by the name of McCarthyism or to the “crusades” launched by Sen. McCarthy.”

That’s reasonable, although what the HuffPo writer planned is predictable and it’s too bad Mirengoff didn’t see it coming.

— DRJ

27 Responses to “The New McCarthy”

  1. Mirengoff should have known that the point he tried to make with Stein would be twisted out of context. This isn’t a case of “once bitten, twice shy”, it’s happened before.

    Cheney also had a point. The fact that Holder would staff the Justice Dept. with attorneys who have a clear far-left bias should be criticized. Holder didn’t have the stones to release the report that clearly exonerated the left’s whipping boys Yoo and Bybee until late Friday afternoon, the traditional time-slot used to ensure minimal exposure and notice. If he can’t stand the heat, get the Hell out of the kitchen.

    GeneralMalaise (04e9c2)

  2. It isn’t merely too bad that Mirengoff didn’t see it coming, it’s amazing.

    I am constantly amazed by conservatives who think they can remain above the fray and that any good faith on their part will be returned by the left.

    Of course Mirengoff never said or implied that what Cheney did was as bad or worse than McCarthyism. But did he really believe that a lefty writer who brings that up out of the blue doesn’t have an agenda?

    To not see this coming ranks with John McCain being suprised that the Democrats aren’t willing to play fair and cut a “Gang of 14 deal” type deal with Republicans on the “nuclear option,” now that the tables are turned.

    How can anyone at all familiar with leftists not see such things coming?

    Steve (1c9d9a)

  3. McCarthy set the American Communist movement back decades. I hope Liz Cheney has the same effect on the American Jihadi movement.

    j curtis (5126e4)

  4. Never criticize conservatives in front of or directly to liberals. It’s gotta be a rule.

    East Coast Chris (ded5f2)

  5. We don’t want to be fooled by innocents being railroaded. Because the guilty ones will still be free to butcher us while we pat ourselves on the back.

    You trust Obama? You trusted Bush? I don’t trust either. You want to take some politician’s word about what somebody is guilty of? Let’s have American trials under American standards of proof. And American lawyers who don’t sell out their clients.

    nk the sometime misogynist (db4a41)

  6. Due Process is not about the defendant, it’s about making sure society is safe from the one who’s really guilty. The Founding Fathers were not stupid.

    nk the sometime misogynist (db4a41)

  7. We have become a nation of women, I think.

    nk (db4a41)

  8. Why, I am getting the vapors just thinking about this horrific McCarthyism. Allah fobid that a private citizen express her desire to know who these people are, especially since they previously advocated on behalf of AQ. You would have to be a silly wingnut to care about that.

    JD (671391)

  9. “The Founding Fathers were not stupid.”

    No they were just reacting to tyranny.

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    imdw (2d82e7)

  10. Trials of terrorists plays right into their hands. Do you think they want a fair trial ? It is a stage that you are providing. Military tribunals and firing squads would allow them an early introduction to the 72 virgins (or white raisins depending on the translation of the Quran). The Islamists have many times said that they love death. OK by me.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  11. I want a fair trial, Mike K. Or at least a fair investigation. I want us to go huntin’ where the ducks is.

    nk (db4a41)

  12. Didn’t anyone read the Venona papers? I believe they were declassified in 1995 or so. It proved McCarthy right, on almost every count.

    Capitalist Infidel (38bec9)

  13. While I do believe in the right of people to counsel, the reality is that while some of the lawyers who went to Guantanamo Bay were motivated by their belief in such principles, a lot more were motivated by partisanship. There were lawyers who believed that partisan advantage, not a constitutional principle, was more important than the best interests of our nation.

    And I don’t see any McCarthyism in pointing that out.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  14. “There were lawyers who believed that partisan advantage, not a constitutional principle, was more important than the best interests of our nation.”

    Which ones?

    imdw (5f60be)

  15. The Founding Fathers were not stupid.

    True. They were smart enough to know that the US Constitution applied to Americans and nobody else. Somewhere in the last fifty years, that level of intelligence disappeared.

    Subotai (a36865)

  16. Which ones?

    What’s the atomic weight of helium?

    Subotai (a36865)

  17. What’s the atomic weight of the innocents at GITMO?

    Comment by imadouchebag

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  18. We have become a nation of women, I think.

    Women like Liz Cheney?

    Comment by imadouchebag

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  19. I’m way past tired of reading the mouth – breather’s expectorations.

    Game on, douchey.

    Dmac (ca1d8c)

  20. Liz Cheney has been compared to Sen. Joseph McCarthy because of this video on the “Al Qaeda 7″ attorneys

    And once again I have to ask the question I raise when someone on the right is accused of McCartyism:

    What do you call a with hunt that keeps on finding witches?

    Lazarus Long (a4f63e)

  21. SPQR,

    That link deserves its own post, and thank you.

    DRJ (daa62a)

  22. And here I thought conservatives distrusted the govt.

    They can’t be trusted with health care, they can’t be trusted with bailouts, but you trust them with this. You all like to talk about slippery slopes; how slippery is this one?

    Of course, it’s easy to enforce the Constitution in good times. Remember Paine’s “summer soldier and sunshine patriot”? The real test of whether we actually believe what we spout really means something, or is just a bunch of bullshit is how we react in situations like this.

    Does anyone seriously believe KSH wouldn’t be found guilty in a court?

    Nobody remembers John Adams defending the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre? He did this, not because he believed them inncoent, but because he believed our system of justice needs to work 100% of the time.

    As for Cheney and her ilk (like NRO), these comments are quite the lowest I’ve ever seen a conservative go; they are in fact anti-American.

    [note: released from moderation. –Stashiu]

    JEA (0ccd61)

  23. JEA : John Adams was operating under the British system of justice when he defended the British soldiers. The main reason he was defending them was that there was no real substance to the charges that were politically inspired. Although John Adams was able to reduce the effects of the guilty verdicts to a thumb branding rather than the hangings that others, including Samuel Adams, had been avocating, the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and was an expression of politics not justice. In any fair venue, the soldiers would have been found innocent.

    Longwalker (996c34)

  24. 24, I believe in a civilian court run by a Democrat Activist Judge will dismiss the charges against KSH because he wasn’t Mirandized, wasn’t released on bail, didn’t have an ALCU shyster advising him to shut up, and that KSH was tortured.

    All of that is bullshit. Once we are sure we got all the information out of KSH, his head should have been blown off with a shotgun.

    [note: released from moderation. –Stashiu]

    PCD (1d8b6d)


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