Thomas Sowell on "Non-Judgmental Nonsense"

The conservative commentator discusses New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring: "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....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.'"

Mr. Sowell continues his commentary: "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."