An essential part of patriotism is the ability to distinguish the personal and the political. Leaders are supposed to work for the greater good of the country or at least their party, not themselves.

Yet given a choice between protecting the political and the personal, Biden has chosen the latter.

As House Republicans prepare to launch an onslaught of oversight investigations next year, the White House is planning to distinguish between inquiries they deem legitimate and others they view as politically, not legislatively, motivated — with an eye toward minimizing their cooperation with probes they consider improper, according to two people familiar with the plans.

White House officials caution that their decisions about cooperation will ultimately hinge on the nature of the investigations, but their preparations, which have been underway for months, hinge on such a split strategy. The White House is likely to respond to requests for documents and testimony relating to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, for example, but far less likely to engage with Republicans’ investigations into Hunter Biden, the president’s son, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The Washington Post is spinning this as a matter of principles, but there are no principles here. After repeatedly targeting Trump family members, they certainly can’t claim that family members are off limits. Even the tame D.C. government media would get whiplash from that.

Biden told reporters the day after the midterm elections, when asked about the Republican plans for investigations. “Look, I think the American public want us to move on and get things done for them.”

Yes, I think between the Jan 6 committee and multiple speeches about the threat to democracy from Republicans, the one takeaway from the last two years is that it would be inappropriate for a political party to spend all of its investigating its opposition.

The bottom line is that Biden has chosen. And he’s chosen the personal.

But the likely flash point will be their determination to investigate Hunter Biden, whom they accuse of financial wrongdoing and trading on the family name. The president, who has lost two other children, is highly protective of his son, who has a long history of drug use and other difficulties.

Protective indeed.

Perhaps Biden wants to protect his son. The messages show a loving father enabling his troubled son. But the bigger picture is that there is a trail of evidence showing Biden’s involvement in Hunter’s business affairs.

And investigations of Hunter would lead to his father.

Afghanistan isn’t going to seriously threaten Biden. As damaging as that is. But the Hunter Biden stuff might. More importantly, Dems are going to ignore anything that comes out of most investigations, but even the media has signaled an openness to using Hunter to keep Biden from running for Term 2.

So if there were any real doubt whether Biden was an ideologue who happened to be corrupt, or a corrupt man pretending to be an ideologue, they’ve been dispelled.

Biden picked the red line. And it’s Hunter. And investigations touching on him.  He put Hunter ahead of the rest of the administration. His allies can read the tea leaves.