The Triumph of Principle

A current news story reads like something out of a novel by Robert Ludlum: representatives of the President visit a hospital to pressure a sick official to authorize a program of questionable legality. The official's deputy races to the hospital to support his boss, who rallies from his sickbed to face down the President's men and deny his support to their proposal. The President's minions, ignoring the sick man's deputy, stalk from the room...and the President later authorizes the program over the objections of his advisors.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has suffered his share of criticism over the years, was the hero of this story, rallying in his illness to stand on principle and deny the approval of a questionable program sought by the President's men - Alberto Gonzalez (now the Attorney General) and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The details have been provided in dramatic testimony by the fourth man in the story, then-Acting Attorney General James Comey.

There's a joke that when you enter high government service, you are required to rent a safety deposit box to hold your pride, dignity, integrity, and self-respect until your term of duty is over. It allows you to cringe and be grilled and insulted by grandstanding Congressmen in front of the TV cameras, and to respond to the stupidest of questions and accusations with a game face. But it's good to see that at least one official retained enough of his honor to stand up to the President on a matter of principle.

We may never know, at least, not any time soon, the details of the program to which Mr Ashcroft objected. And we have only the testimony of Mr Comey as to what transpired during the dramatic showdown in the hospital. But I'd like to think that Mr Comey is correct, and that we are served by at least some people whose sense of integrity and moral courage is strong enough to stand up to the highest pressure our government can apply.

There haven't been many recent opportunities to be proud of our government officials, but this is one. Let's hope there are more.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo