In light of President Obama's determination (as a "policy"?) to look  
forward rather than backward, when it comes to cleansing the soul of  
the nation of the filth of the rational for the Iraq war, Twain, once  
again strikes to the heart!


from:
Territorial Enterprise, April 7, 1868
MARK TWAIN'S LETTERS FROM WASHINGTON.
NUMBER XI.
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1868


...The Republicans show a disposition to quit talking about the  
impeaching of a President on stern principle for a contemptuous  
violation of law and his oath of office; they show a disposition to  
drop the high moral ground that such a precedent must not be sent down  
to hamper posterity, and they already openly talk about the "impolicy"  
of impeaching. It would be curious to hear a Court talking of the  
"impolicy" of convicting a man for murder in the first degree. This  
everlasting compelling of honesty, morality, justice and the law to  
bend the knee to policy, is the rottenest thing in a republican form  
of government. It is cowardly, degraded and mischievous; and in its  
own good time it will bring destruction upon this broad-shouldered  
fabric of ours. I believe the Prince of Darkness could start a branch  
hell in the District of Columbia (if he has not already done it), and  
carry it on unimpeached by the Congress of the United States, even  
though the Constitution were bristling with articles forbidding hells  
in this country. And if there were moneyed offices in it, Congress  
would take stock in the concern, too,...