The terrorist attacks on 9/11 not only caused loss of life and physical damage but also put cracks in America's sense of national identity. In ill-considered response, actions that once would have seemed foreign to our nature -- wiretapping and torture, for example -- became instruments of official policy.

Sadly, some would continue the dry rot of overreaction that has corroded the nation's moral foundation. For Exhibit A, the public can look no further than an odious video produced by Keep America Safe, a conservative group headed by Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a promoter of the politics of fear and an architect of its worst excesses.

In the video, Ms. Cheney's group seeks to demonize lawyers who in the past had worked for terror suspects -- and never mind that the right-leaning U.S. Supreme Court found constitutional merit in several of the cases they brought.

Ostensibly, the video takes issue with Attorney General Eric Holder, who had said he would be looking to hire attorneys with similar values, for not releasing names of department lawyers who had represented or advocated for suspected terrorists. In case anyone thought that Ms. Cheney's gambit was a good-faith, open government inquiry, the video branded the seven unnamed lawyers (out of nine hired) as the "al-Qaida 7."

If there's one principle that shines as bright as a lighthouse in American jurisprudence, it is the right of the accused -- any accused, no matter how wretchedly bad -- to be represented by counsel. It has been thus since the earliest times in American history (John Adams famously represented British redcoats charged in the Boston Massacre). To attempt to vilify attorneys who do this imperative work is to take a sledgehammer to a pillar of the Constitution.

Being a radical attack on American traditions, this video doesn't reflect true conservative principles. So it is heartening to see that 22 prominent conservatives, former GOP officials and legal luminaries (including former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr), signed a letter of protest issued by the Brookings Institution. They called the attacks on the lawyers "shameful."

That is the precise word for it. Someone ought to tell Liz Cheney this country can be safe without shaming itself.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.