Representation is for the Innocent

You really couldn't do anything better calculated to piss off lawyers than to suggest that it's wrong to represent Guantanamo detainees. Yet this is exactly the stance taken by the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, Charles D. Stimson. He recommends that major corporations make sure not to do business with law firms that represent detainees. Other conservatives are in agreement. Robert Pollock, on the WSJ editorial page, quoted a government official saying, “Corporate C.E.O.’s seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists.”

I don't really have much of a comment, except that this strikes me as an argument you would only make if you were crazy or arguing in bad faith. I think what's going on is that you have a rabid base of true believers, a layer of profit-takers ready to capitalize, and a government ready to take advantage of the whole structure. You have to wonder whether this pushes conservatism too far, in the sense of making it repugnant to reasonable people.