Daschle And Bale: Portraits In Progressivism

As Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle was an eloquent if sometimes harsh critic of President Bush. He is beloved of liberals and progressives. He got a free car and driver from a fat cat when he was a former senator and didn't think to report it on his income taxes because, he said, he was used to people picking him up and driving him around.

Actor Christian Bale is a supporter of Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund who became a vegetarian at six after reading Charlotte's Web and realizing that meat came from animals. When a distinguished director of photography got in his line of sight on a movie set, he screamed at him for three minutes in a degrading, threatening way, refusing to accept the man's mumbled apology and acting for all the world like someone who knew he wouldn't be held accountable for his atrocious abuse of another human being.

So what makes the world go 'round: Power and money, or principle? What tells us more about a person: Opinions or actions?