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I understand a lawyer has to do what he has to do for his client.

But I hope attorney John Galligan goes nowhere with a possible insanity defense for Fort Hood mass-murder suspect Nidal Hasan.

Galligan told the Associated Press yesterday that the court must consider his client's mental status because the allegations against Hasan contradict his lifestyle and military career.

From what we've learned about Hasan so far, I'd say prosecutors will try to make the case that Hasan's alleged actions were motivated by attitudes that could be detected in his background, beliefs and associations and were not therefore contradictory or inconsistent.

Yes, the actions of the perpetrator of this heinous crime were crazy, in the same way the actions of a suicide bomber are crazy. But can Hasan's defense attorneys show he had lost his hold on reality to the point of not knowing what he was doing? That will be quite a stretch.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 50a, says:

"It is an affirmative defense in a trial by court-martial that, at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the accused, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of the acts. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense."