Hypocrisy? Or Hugely Bad Judgment?

It seems to happen all the time, doesn't it?

We have elected officials who campaign on family values and are cheating on their wives behind everyone's backs. We have elected officials who campaign on an anti-corruption platform and it turns out they accept as many favors as the people they have prosecuted.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer is only the most recent example. He made a name for himself as a crusader against corruption in business and government. It sounds like he was a hard-nosed, blunt, and ruthless crusader for What Is Right.

Now look at him.

What is it about public officials? Why do they make such an issue out of family values or corruption when they fail to live up to their own standards for others? Is it blatant hypocrisy? Is it arrogance? Is it simply bad judgment? Don't they realize what will happen to their families and career if they are caught? Or do they make so many enemies that someone sets out to trap them in their own weaknesses? How are we to know what really happens in these cases?

There is a great hue and cry calling for Gov. Spitzer to resign. If his effectiveness as governor is destroyed, then probably he might as well resign and rebuild his life as best he can.

Then on the other hand, is this worth the destruction of a man's career? In this age of kiss-and-tell, probably not. This is basically a personal mistake, not something that should impair his ability to function as governor of his state. It surely isn't worth impeaching him; the talk of impeachment shows how cynical and bloodthirsty this nation is today. We're like sharks circling a wounded person or animal in the sea. Anyone who ever makes any kind of mistake is fair game, and if he doesn't like being It he shouldn't be alive because anyone who is alive is vulnerable.

I note that the people who are nastiest toward Gov. Spitzer are the people who he was nasty to when he himself had the upper hand. Someone said once, "The person who hasn't committed any wrongs may cast the first stone."

Maybe we should all remember that.

That same someone also said, on another occasion, "Judge not, lest you be judged. For you will be judged the same way you judge others."

That is what is happening now to Gov. Spitzer. Next it will happen to some of the people who are calling for his impeachment. The shoe will be on the other foot again, the game will continue, and the band will keep on playing.

I want to be nasty too. The nerve of this man! He made such an issue out of corruption and then he turned out to be a human being like everyone else.

If he had used a less brutal style, he might have more friends today when he needs friends.

But what the heck. I don't have the right to cast the first stone either. I doubt that anyone does. We have the right to be upset, but let's keep partisan revenge out of it. That's one of the things that fractures our nation. Can we cool down and try to work for healing this time?