There is also a Levantine tinge to negotiating: everything is up for bargaining, loyalty to family and clan can trump merit and efficiency, and preserving honor may be more important than tangible results.

Interesting that Tories try to hold the moral high ground by talking about "loyalty to one's friends," - as if a loyalty to a friend could somehow trump national security.

Is it possible that these men and women, who may be committing professional suicide, have decided that loyalty to the people and the country trumps blind loyalty to a dangerously belligerent government?

But Mr. Moore's loyalty to his artists trumped his aversion to his former employers, and he stayed put.

But that has not prevented Bushes and Lamonts from socializing today in elite circles that still value grace and civility, where personal loyalty can trump partisan patrimony.

When ideology always trumps reality, loyalty always trumps expertise.

She wondered if she had miscalculated: Did his loyalty to the Alliance trump the temptation of his ambitions?

Old loyalties still trump the need to put the house in order.

Now, loyalty trumps competence.