The vast majority of us understand that in our legal system everyone deserves a fair trial and the legal representation that makes that possible even if many of us, at a gut level, have a hard time understanding being the individual person who mounts a zealous defense of someone who is factually, if not yet legally, guilty of a horrific crime. But today I was surprised and almost nauseated to see Wolf Blitzer go in for the most stereotypical, craven and showboating knock-about of the retired JAG officer who’s representing Nidal Hasan. (Hasan has a regular military defense counsel as well as a civilian attorney retained by his family.) It’s not about ideology certainly or even theories of what’s right or not about the law. But we know bullying and pompous showboating when we see it.

The retired JAG, Col. John Galligan, stood up to it very well. And actually got back in Blitzer’s face in a way that’s pretty hard to do and uncommon for a non-TV personality going up against a big shot host. If we want Hannity, we’ve got Fox for that. Right?