"A Hair's Breadth Above Your Average Mass Murderer"

A Sullivan reader and attorney has a few things to say about the backpedalling by the Obama DOJ on the OPR Report, which I commented on yesterday. Money quote:

There are many fine lawyers who endeavor to properly and responsibility [sic] counsel their clients on matters that most would view as far less important than interrogation policy. Many do so with far fewer resources and similar time constraints than those that faced Yoo. (One of the interesting insights from the Margolis and OPR reports is that a junior attorney assisted with much of the drafting of the first two torture memos). But because Yoo had extreme views to begin with, he will not be subjected to discipline for the ideological and slanted nonsense he produced while on the payroll of the American public. Future administrations now have every incentive now to stack the Department of Justice with hardcore ideologues who will embolden the worst impulses of their political masters instead of providing sober and dispassionate analysis.

My italics. His conclusion:

Reading Margolis's memorandum, one cannot escape the conclusion expressed by Jack Balkin that to be a member in good standing of the legal profession in the United States one need only moral standing that is a hair's breadth above your average mass murderer.