Fighting for a Principle

I'm pondering what the president said at his press conference on Thursday: “I can look in the mirror and I know that I made a decision based on principle not on public opinion”.

I think what Bush means is that he is committed to upholding universal norms that transcend the clamor of the mob. What it really means is that he is infected with a virus that blinds him to such irrelevancies as facts, logic, the rule of law, and the will of the people.

My principle is to beware of principles.