Friday, April 24, 1998 | 10:42 a.m.
Despite their previous clashes, Bush is supporting Secret Service efforts to prevent agents from testifying about what they saw when protecting Clinton. The Clinton administration made a letter from Bush to the Secret Service director part of its sealed court filing to try to stop Kenneth Starr's Whitewater prosecutors from questioning the agents.
"If a president feels that the Secret Service agents can be called to testify about what they might have seen or heard, then it is likely that the president will be uncomfortable having the agents nearby," the New York Times reported Bush as writing. "If that confidence evaporates, the agents denied proximity cannot properly protect the president."
Bush's politics may have been questioned in the past, but his character was never in doubt. He has shown he is a man of principle by taking a stand that may not be politically popular among his own party but which is important to preserve the future protection of presidents.
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