I realize that all lawyers represent some clients that the public might view as unsavory. Indeed, most lawyers will at some point represent clients who they KNOW are guilty. So maybe I’m overreacting to the appointment of C. Anthony West to an Assistant Attorney General post in the Obama Justice Department,

This appointment of a terrorist's defense lawyer to the Department of Justice announces that Barack Obama is in favor of a more lenient stance on terrorists. As Lileks says, it is evidence of a going back to 9/10 thinking. Also, since the Old Media have not made a single peep about this, it announces to the world that neither the crimes of 9/11 nor terrorism are any longer of interest to those that make the news. Says Lileks, "It just seems like one of those things that might have stuck out, once upon a time."

So, in a era when most of us still acutely feel that Islamic terrorism is an important worry that should still feature prominently in our planning, Barack Obama is appointing a terrorist's lawyer to one of the very agencies that is supposed to protect us all.

And interestingly enough, the MSM is not looking into this issue at all. Where have the stories been exposing this link – and the fact that West still defends his little terrorist puke of a client as being innocent? They have been nonexistent.

Now maybe West has a good explanation for his position. Maybe he took the Lindh case out of the belief that “someone has to do it”. But to still be defending him now, after the verdict has been rendered and appeals exhausted strikes me as a negative in regard to that nomination – and one that the Senate should examine closely during the confirmation process.