It's Not Relative

    So far this year we have had (in no particular chronological or other order):

1. Hillary Clinton placing doubt on the implicit mandate given the elected delegates to the Democratic Convention, saying they are not necessarily committed to support the candidate to whom they were pledged in the primary elections.
2. Geraldine Ferraro, head of finance for the Clinton campaign (who just resigned as of this writing), claiming that Obama is doing well because “he is not white”, then blaming the Obama campaign for turning it into a racial comment.
3. Eliot Spitzer, who broke up prostitution rings as attorney general before being elected governor of New York on a platform of ethics reform, admitting to having paid for such services himself while governor.
4. The board of Washington Mutual excluding mortgage related losses from management's bonus calculations¹.
5. The fallen heads of Countrywide Financial, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch defending before Congress their copious payouts in the midst of the current mortgage and housing crisis afflicting their customers².
6. At least two conservative commentators invoking Obama’s middle name ("Hussein") as suggestive of impure loyalty to the United States.
7. Senator Larry Craig (R, ID) still serving in Congress after having received a Public Letter of Admonition (13 February 2008) from the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics for being convicted of a misdemeanor and for using campaign funds for personal purposes in violation their rules³.

    What do these items of seemingly unrelated turpitudes have in common? They reflect two things: a) The hubris that accrues to men and women in power that admits the self-deception that one is allowed to do or say anything if one is convinced of the value of one’s judgment over an absolute moral standard. b) The tolerance of the American public for relativistic excursions from that absolute moral standard.
    If we seek to teach our children to honor their pledge to clean their rooms, then we ought to expect the former First Lady not to pressure delegates to break their pledges to represent their constituencies for her profit. If prostitution is a crime for Mr. Jones of Anytown USA, it must be crime for the Governor of the State of New York. If racism is wrong, it is wrong too for the former Vice Presidential candidate who ventured into such an incomprehensible speculation. If employees are expected to act as honorable fiduciary guardians of shareholder interests each and every day they show up at work, we should expect nothing less from CEOs and Boards of Directors seduced into rewarding themselves for failure. If name calling indicates weakness in school yard bullies, it betrays vacuous reasoning in otherwise educated commentators. And if a high school basketball player is benched for having dishonored his team by breaking the school rules, then a Senator ought to be made to step down for having disgraced the august body to which he was elected and the people he and that body serves.
    We are fortunate to live in a country and society where power cannot corrupt for long and attempted absolute power is met with checks and balances. We ordinary citizens are not helpless. We can vote each and every day against such abuses of trust and responsibility. We can vote by voicing opinion, by refusing to accept behavior not worthy of a great nation. Vote by refusing to buy the products or shares of companies with insulated and callous management. (Morningstar includes a corporate stewardship rating for every company they review. WaMu got a “C”.) Vote by demanding that American civility demands politicians to conduct themselves with respect for each other, and more importantly for the voter.
    Leadership is partly about character, partly about the conviction of sound ideas. They necessarily come in that order.

 1- "WaMu's Board Shields Executive Bonuses", The Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2008
 2- "House Panel Aims Fire at CEO Pay Packages", ibid, 7 March 2008
 3- Craig Senate Ethics Letter 13 February 2008

Comments

[SuedGothSuddy]

Just thought I needed to post a welcome message introducing myself. I write for the new <a href=http://www.unitedstatescongress.net>United States Congress</a> website.

I am very interested in peoples opinion on the site.