(Thumbnail Image: Fox News)

Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is the center of a political battle after her non-profit group Keep America Safe aired the following controversial advertisement. 

"Who are these government officials? Eric Holder will only name two. Why the secrecy behind the other seven? Whose values do they share? Tell Eric Holder Americans have a right to know the identity of the Al-Qaeda Seven."

A group of prominent conservative lawyers and legal scholars posted a letter condemning the ad on the website for The Brookings Institution, a non-profit policy group.

"To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions on contested questions."

Others think the ad raises more good questions than bad feelings. On Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly says the Attorney General should make it clear why government lawyers are representing enemies of the government.

"The Fox News exposition wasn't that the terrorists didn't deserve the lawyers to defend them. I didn't hear anybody say that, because we believe in the Constitution, every person is entitled to representation...Nobody has a beef with that, I didn't have a beef with that when I brought Liz Cheney on. I said, why do you think Holder wants these people, since Holder himself doesn't make himself available to anybody, all right? That's a legitimate question."

And Jon Stewart and former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen debate the ad's message on Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

Thiessen: "Let's take the pedophile case. If you're a lawyer and these are pro bono jobs, so you have a limited amount of time, pro bono time, to spend litigating something, and you decide that you're going to spend all of your time representing pedophiles, it would raise a question."

Stewart: "Why?"

Thiessen: "Because, why are you so interested? Why are you trying to free these people?"

Stewart: "Because you believe in the rule of law and that the country's fabric is decided not by the easiest cases to take, but the hardest cases to take."

So does Liz Cheney's ad threaten to undermine our justice system? Or does it pose good questions about the loyalties of government lawyers?

Writer: Elizabeth Eberlin

Producer: Newsy Staff