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'Non-Judgmental' Nonsense (Thomas Sowell)
GOPUSA ^ | March 12, 2007 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 03/11/2008 7:08:13 PM PDT by jazusamo

What was he thinking of? That was the first question that came to mind when the story of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring was reported in the media.

It was also the first question that came to mind when star quarterback Michael Vick ruined his career and lost his freedom over his involvement in illegal dog fighting. It is a question that arises when other very fortunate people risk everything for some trivial satisfaction.

Many in the media refer to Eliot Spitzer as some moral hero who fell from grace. Spitzer was never a moral hero. He was an unscrupulous prosecutor who threw his power around to ruin people, even when he didn't have any case with which to convict them of anything.

Because he was using his overbearing power against businesses, the anti-business left idolized him, just as they idolized Ralph Nader before him as some sort of secular saint because he attacked General Motors.

What Eliot Spitzer did was not out of character. It was completely in character for someone with the hubris that comes with the ability to misuse his power to make or break innocent people.

After John Whitehead, former head of Goldman Sachs, wrote an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal, criticizing Attorney General Spitzer's handling of a case involving Maurice Greenberg, Spitzer was quoted by Whitehead as saying: "I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done."

When you start thinking of yourself as a little tin god, able to throw your weight around to bully people into silence, it is a sign of a sense of being exempt from the laws and social rules that apply to other people.

For someone with this kind of hubris to risk his whole political career for a fling with a prostitute is no more surprising than for Michael Vick to throw away millions to indulge his taste for dog fighting or for Leona Helmsley to avoid paying taxes -- not because she couldn't easily afford to pay taxes and still have more money left than she could ever spend -- but because she felt above the rules that apply to "the little people."

What is almost as scary as having someone like Eliot Spitzer holding power is having so many pundits talking as if this is just a "personal" flaw in Governor Spitzer that should not disqualify him for public office.

Spitzer himself spoke of his "personal" failing as if it had nothing to do with his being governor of New York.

In this age, when it is considered the height of sophistication to be "non-judgmental," one of the corollaries is that "personal" failings have no relevance to the performance of official duties.

What that amounts to, ultimately, is that character doesn't matter. In reality, character matters enormously, more so than most things that can be seen, measured or documented.

Character is what we have to depend on when we entrust power over ourselves, our children and our society to government officials.

We cannot risk all that for the sake of the fashionable affectation of being more non-judgmental than thou.

Currently, various facts are belatedly beginning to leak out that give us clues to the character of Barack Obama. But to report these facts is being characterized as a "personal" attack.

Barack Obama's personal and financial association with a man under criminal indictment in Illinois is not just a "personal" matter. Nor is his 20 years of going to a church whose pastor has praised Louis Farrakhan and condemned the United States in both sweeping terms and with obscene language.

The Obama camp likens mentioning such things to criticizing him because of what members of his family might have said or done. But it was said, long ago, that you can pick your friends but not your relatives.

Obama chose to be part of that church for 20 years. He was not born into it. His "personal" character matters, just as Eliot Spitzer's "personal" character matters -- and just as Hillary Clinton's character would matter if she had any.

---------

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: nobama; obama; sowell; spitzer; spitzmas; thomassowell; tsbo
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Dr. Sowell nailed this, as usual.
1 posted on 03/11/2008 7:08:14 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: AbeKrieger; Alia; Amalie; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; bboop; ...
*PING*
Thomas Sowell

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Recent columns
The Costs of Crime
William F. Buckley (1925-2008)
Rescuing the Rust Belt

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Thomas Sowell ping list…

2 posted on 03/11/2008 7:09:36 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: jazusamo

Yes he did. OUTSTANDING! Thanks for posting. WOW!


3 posted on 03/11/2008 7:12:22 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: jazusamo

That’s why I’m a Sowell man!


4 posted on 03/11/2008 7:20:06 PM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: jazusamo

Tom, if you read FReepers, you are one of my heros. You know what being an American is and you are steadfast in your American Character. Praise Be.


5 posted on 03/11/2008 7:20:42 PM PDT by tillacum (The only way to vote is REPUBLICAN, no matter what. We've got to win.)
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To: jazusamo

Why can’t thomas sowell run for president?


6 posted on 03/11/2008 7:22:16 PM PDT by utherdoul
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To: jazusamo
I hope the AG pounds the Mann Act up Spitzer's ass with a sharp stick.


7 posted on 03/11/2008 7:24:22 PM PDT by Viking2002 (Rove, you magnificent bastard!)
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To: Viking2002

If ever anyone deserved it, Spitzer does. :)


8 posted on 03/11/2008 7:27:02 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: jazusamo
When you start thinking of yourself as a little tin god, able to throw your weight around to bully people into silence, it is a sign of a sense of being exempt from the laws and social rules that apply to other people.

In other words, a Democrat.

9 posted on 03/11/2008 7:29:00 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (It takes a father to raise a child.)
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To: Viking2002
I hope the AG pounds the Mann Act up Spitzer's ass with a sharp stick.

Dude... didn't you see the "D" next to Spitzer's name?

10 posted on 03/11/2008 7:29:57 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (It takes a father to raise a child.)
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To: tillacum
Liberals love to make political hay out of race and identity politics. But there are many men (and women) of other races I'd gladly follow through the Gates of Hell.

Tom Sowell is one of them. I'd take him and a slingshot over ten Clintonistas and a Howitzer.


11 posted on 03/11/2008 7:33:59 PM PDT by Viking2002 (I hope the AG pounds the Mann Act up Spitzer's ass with a sharp stick.)
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To: jazusamo
In reality, character matters enormously, more so than most things that can be seen, measured or documented.

That's what I said in 1992, in contrast to the stated position of one presidential candidate.

12 posted on 03/11/2008 7:34:59 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Jeff Chandler
You're right - one of his ho's probably did that to him already, and got an extra 15% for it.


13 posted on 03/11/2008 7:36:00 PM PDT by Viking2002 (I hope the AG pounds the Mann Act up Spitzer's ass with a sharp stick.)
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To: jazusamo
...just as Hillary Clinton's character would matter if she had any.

Saving the best for last.

14 posted on 03/11/2008 7:36:18 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: jazusamo
What was he thinking of?

Well we know what he was thinking with....

15 posted on 03/11/2008 7:37:40 PM PDT by GOP_Raider ("Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man" -Nietzsche)
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To: jazusamo

Another excellent article by Thomas Sowell. I only wish he was the Republican candidate for President this year!


16 posted on 03/11/2008 7:39:36 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: jazusamo
What is almost as scary as having someone like Eliot Spitzer holding power is having so many pundits talking as if this is just a "personal" flaw in Governor Spitzer that should not disqualify him for public office.

Spitzer himself spoke of his "personal" failing as if it had nothing to do with his being governor of New York.

Excellent observation. Spitzer has been trying to separate his actions with the prostitute ring from his thuggish behavior as governor and prosecutor, when the latter quite probably made the former entirely predictable. Or at minimum, heavily influenced it.

17 posted on 03/11/2008 7:39:43 PM PDT by prairiebreeze (Spitz spritzed a ditz, no longer putting on the ritz, oh how the shoe fits.)
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To: DuncanWaring

That he did and he ripped her in his own polite way.


18 posted on 03/11/2008 7:39:57 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: jazusamo
Hillary Clinton's character would matter if she had any.

POW! Right in the kisser.

19 posted on 03/11/2008 7:40:44 PM PDT by groanup (War is not the answer. Victory is.)
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To: prairiebreeze

He’ll keep trying but he’s going to lose.


20 posted on 03/11/2008 7:41:26 PM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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