On Morning Joke this morning, former Bush Administration lawyer, David Rivkin, offered a soft condemnation of Liz Cheney's and Bill Kristol's attacks on DOJ attorneys and the labeling of the agency as the Department of Jihad. Rivkin thus joined the long list of embarrassed wingers to distance themselves from the actions and words of the thinly-veiled PAC called "Keep America Safe."
Rivkin looked about as sincere as Mark Sanford apologizing to his wife. But that wasn’t what sparked my outrage. Rivkin had the gall to suggest that while recent attacks on DOJ attorneys were reprehensible, they were no more so than attacks from the Left on Bush attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Even more outrageous was the predictable behavior of Joe Scarborough and company who failed to challenge Rivkin’s ridiculous comments.
Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol are responsible for falsely accusing DOJ attorneys of sympathizing with their clients’ cause, and thus are guilty at the very least of neo-McCarthyism. John Yoo and Jay Bybee, on the other hand, provided dubious legal cover for George Bush and Dick Cheney to torture, murder, and use whatever means necessary to extract intelligence, false as it may have been, to justify an on-going crusade in the Middle East. Critics of Yoo and Bybee are completely warranted, in my opinion, is seeking accountability for their heinous actions in support of George Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s subterfuge. Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol are critical of DOJ attorneys for simply doing their jobs and upholding the constitution. But the crowd over at Keep America Safe sees this as an opportunity to draw some blood from Barack Obama.
I would hope that Americans, accused of bad deeds in foreign nations, guilty or innocent, would enjoy the luxury of a vigorous defense by government attorneys in those nations.
Rivkin’s lame attempt to equate the actions of those, who would impugn Yoo and Bybee, with the cynical actions of Cheney and Kristol demonstrates his disconnection with reality and his obvious collusion in the Bush Administration's emasculation of the U.S. Constitution.