Does Senator Jim Bunning always make an ass of himself? The hate and vitriol that comes from the right has been non-stop and offensive.

A year after surgery for pancreatic cancer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience last week that she is feeling well -- and then took a dig at the senator who had claimed after her surgery that she would only have nine months to live.

"I am pleased to report that, contrary to Sen. Bunning's prediction, I am alive and in good health," she said.

Jim Bunning, R-Ky., made the comments during a private fundraiser on Feb. 21, 2009, when he described Ginsburg's cancer as "bad cancer -- the kind that you don't get better from."

He later apologized in a statement in which he misspelled the Justice's name. "I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg," Bunning then said.

Good for Judge Ginsburg not to back down to a republican bully.

And she also took a shot at Liz Cheney for attacking the loyalty of lawyers who represent terrorists.

Ginsburg also weighed in on the recent controversy, fueled by Liz Cheney, questioning the loyalty of U.S. lawyers representing accused terrorists.

Cheney, heading the group Keep America Safe, has criticized President Obama for naming nine lawyers to posts at the Department of Justice after the lawyers had provided legal assistance prior to their government service to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Ginsburg said she was "unsettled, indeed alarmed" by such criticism. "One of the nine was a former law clerk of mine, a young man of great intelligence, integrity and devotion to the ideals that make the U.S.A. a great nation," she said.

Ginsburg went on to praise lawyers who serve on a pro bono basis even for clients who might be unpopular.

"To that expression of the true America Way, one can only say Amen," she said.

By the way, he only controversy is that Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol attacked the loyalty and ethics of our own legal profession and the lawyers that work there.