Those looking for a reason to hope for Republican control of the White House and the Senate need look no further than the extraordinarily lenient sentence meted out yesterday by a Clinton-appointed federal judge, John Koeltl, in the case of the terrorism-supporting lawyer, Lynne Stewart. The Clinton-appointed judge sentenced Stewart to a mere two years and four months in prison — radically less than the 30 years that prosecutors sought. And one of those arguing for leniency for Stewart was the assistant attorney general in charge of criminal prosecutions from 1993 to 1995, another Clinton appointee, Jo Ann Harris.

The Associated Press account of the trial says that the judge weighed in Stewart’s favor “more than three decades of dedication by Stewart to poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients.” And indeed there is a long and distinguished tradition in American history of making sure that unpopular clients have a defense. This dates at least back to John Adams’s representation of the British soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre.The right to defense counsel is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment and was strengthened by the Supreme Court in Gideon v.Wainwright. But it is a right to counsel, not a right to a post-conviction accomplice.

Stewart was not charged with treason but with providing material support to terrorists by relaying a message from her client, the blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who had been convicted of a plot to blow up, among other things, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. The AP account noted that Stewart’s past clients included “Black Panthers, leaders of the 1960s student activist group Weather Underground, a former mob hit man and a man accused of trying to kill nine police officers.” We’ve often wondered how those who represent murderers keep their own moral compasses from going askew. In her pre-sentencing letter, Stewart spoke of the “emotional mutuality” that arises between a lawyer and a client.

We don’t want to make too much of the Stewart case, for which it is hard to recall a precedent.But it is astounding to see individuals who once held positions of great responsibility in America seek to put the gloss on what she did.America is in the midst of a long and terrible war, one with stakes every bit as large as World War II or the Cold War. It was important for America to press this prosecution, and the leniency of the sentence notwithstanding, the conviction and sentencing of Lynne Stewart sends a signal that convicted terrorists can’t use their lawyers as messengers. It will make Americans safer.