Countdown: Conservatives Outraged With Liz Cheney's Fear Mongering.

I am really pleased that so many conservatives are coming out of the woodwork to condemn Liz Cheney's outrageous McCarthyite attack on lawyers who defended people suspected of terrorism.

It was one of the most despicable and lowly attacks that I have ever come across. She should be damaged by this, but she won't be. Fox will still have her on to talk in the same way as they continue to invite Bill Kristol to give his "expert" opinions. And that man has been wrong more often than anyone else I can think of.

We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But the war itself will clarify who was right and who was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. It will reveal the aspirations of the people of Iraq, and expose the truth about Saddam's regime. It will produce whatever effects it will produce on neighboring countries and on the broader war on terror. We would note now that even the threat of war against Saddam seems to be encouraging stirrings toward political reform in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and a measure of cooperation in the war against al Qaeda from other governments in the region. It turns out it really is better to be respected and feared than to be thought to share, with exquisite sensitivity, other people's pain. History and reality are about to weigh in, and we are inclined simply to let them render their verdicts.

The verdict, once delivered, proved Kristol to be utterly in the wrong. But it didn't affect his career one iota. And Cheney won't be affected by her foray into McCarthyism. She will continue to be invited to spout her venom publicly.

Tags: Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, Guantanamo Bay, lawyers