The only common denominator is that each and every perjurer no doubt believed that the questions he answered falsely were none of the prosecutor's business. But in the Clinton case, a new first principle has come into play. Indeed, the President's criminal conduct is even seen as honorable, much like the actions of John Peter Zenger or Martin Luther King, who knowingly violated the laws of their time out of fidelity to first principles, or Abraham Lincoln, who did what was necessary to win a war that had to be won. The same penumbra covers the President's apparent obstruction of justice. Since the investigation was about sex which was consensual and occurred between adults, it was per se illegitimate and anything done to frustrate it was acceptable and perhaps noble.
First principles are the foundation stones of public life.
A nation has room for only a very limited number of them. A democracy must carefully weigh the propositions it embraces as fundamental. Today, a great many Americans more readily and unequivocally assent to the Playboy Philosophy than to the older, harder, more austere principles that guided the Founding. The consequences for our public standards, for the expectations we have of our leaders, and for the principle of equal justice under law are profound. Mr. Hinderaker and Mr. Johnson are Minneapolis attorneys and are Adjunct Fellows of The Claremont Institute.