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The last time I ran into David Iglesias was in the terminal at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., in 1998 during his run for New Mexico attorney general, a race eventually won by Patricia Madrid. I was there to see my then-girlfriend, one of the great May-December romances of my life, who was meeting me at the airport.

It was a great moment. At almost the exact moment I was moving in for a long overdue romantic kiss, there was Iglesias standing beside me, almost as if choreographed.

It stopped me dead cold, completely intimidated at the thought of a possible attorney general watching me doing a Bogey-and-Bergman public smooch-up.

Politics versus romance. What to do? The obvious answer was to chat with Iglesias. That earned me a pretty stiff rebuke from the girlfriend later that night about my priorities.

Not one of my better romance moments in retrospect.

Still, it's a great memory. Two memories, in fact. She was a first-ballot romance hall of famer, but I also remember thinking at the time, "Man, this guy is so solid. He is going to be a star."

He had no worries about running into me and interrupting a romantic moment at the airport. He had bigger worries. Still does.

But let me say this to all those predicting the end of his political career in New Mexico or anywhere else: get off it.

David Iglesias is gilded. He can do anything he wants.

Here's the thing about him: He's patient to a fault and willing to let that patience provide a more thoughtfully considered result. As we now know from the statement by Sen. Pete Domenici, that willingness to let things play out to satisfy the many instead of bombs-away to mollify the few is a sticking point.

What many people don't know about Iglesias is he is also a man of strong faith, beholden to no man.

Before attending the University of New Mexico School of Law, he graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois (class of 1980), located west of Chicago. My mother and her husband lived there for a few years and I've been there a couple of times.

The college, and the town, are faith-based institutions that quietly go about their business.

That strong sense of patience and faith is what's going to get Iglesias through his hearing today in front of a Senate committee.

Most of all, what's going to propel him could be called "A Few Good Men; the Sequel."

It's folklore here, but for many political watchers, the revelation that Iglesias' defense of two men accused of hazing a fellow soldier at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a Navy judge advocate general defense counsel was the origin of the play, "A Few Good Men."

Written by Aaron Sorkin of "West Wing" fame, the play is best known as the hit movie starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.

A quote in the Wheaton College alumni newsletter a few years ago provided insight on where Iglesias was coming from in that JAG case: "It was one of those things when I look back, I can see the hand of the Lord in it. The core of who I am is a practitioner of Christianity. No one ever gets it perfect, but we practice and live by grace."

The film introduced the term "JAG" into the lexicon and a hit TV show. Iglesias can claim some ownership in that.

Instead of defending two enlisted men, Iglesias now is defending himself, a man of honor, faith and integrity being dragged through the congressional mud. I wonder who's going to win this perception war? This is show business gold dust.

With Iglesias as one of the "Gonzales Eight" - U.S. attorneys fired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - the situation even has a show business-inspired name. This thing is going his way already and it's just getting started.

David Iglesias can handle the truth. What remains to be seen from everyone involved in his ouster is if they can.