Check out the first article on this Wall Street Journal "Best of the Web" site.

Regardless of the screaming from the Usual Sources about Bush destroying our freedoms, apparently only ten percent of those surveyed thought he was going "too far." Other numbers are similar.

How this is interpreted will vary widely:

Some will just point it out as the sheep being willing to sacrifice freedom for safety, which our Founding Fathers warned us against. And of course, no one should be foolish enough to think that just because a majority of Americans has an opinion, that the opinion is right. This is why pure democracy often sucks.

Others will point it out as meaning that Americans are secure enough in their freedoms to make reasonable adjustments in a time of war, and that we have survived such things before with freedom intact.

Still others will point out that it is about bloody time that the cavalier attitudes towards illegal immigrants, imported criminals, fake visas, etc. are tightened up considerably.

Many of these attitudes will overlap in the same people. I myself am still unclear on this issue in several areas.

Still, the politicians trying to cut Bush, and most especially Ashcroft, off at the knees on this, may be impressing mostly each other. Certainly they don't seem to be impressing the electorate.