One of the arguments supporters of Sen. Claire McCaskill have offered to defend her vendetta against Gen. Susan Helms is an appeal to authority--oddly enough, to a lower authority, which is to say a less-senior officer. As the Washington Post's Craig Whitlock put it in an outrageously one-sided news story earlier this month: "Court records show that Helms--who is not a judge and did not observe the trial--ignored a recommendation from her legal adviser to uphold the jury's conviction."

Meet Col. Andrew Williams,...