Liz Cheney's 'Al-Qaeda 7' Ad Raises Uproar

The new attack ad launched by Liz Cheney’s Keep America Safe group is so nasty that even her fellow conservatives are attacking it, and some are invoking McCarthyism. The ad brands Department of Justice officials who once represented Guantanamo inmates the “Al Qaeda 7,” and implies that they, and by extension AG Eric Holder, share terrorist values. A writer for the conservative Power Line blog called the attacks “vicious” and “unfounded.”

“It could be worse than some of the assertions made by McCarthy,” he told the Huffington Post. “It is just baseless.” A former Condoleezza Rice adviser called the ad “unfortunate,” saying it “reflects the politicization and polarization of terrorism issues.” And Ted Olson, who represented Bush in Bush v. Gore, said that in general attacking detainee defense lawyers “cheapens the discourse” and should be antithetical to American values. (More Liz Cheney stories.)