A recent article in Navy Times (http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/11/ap-5-generals-in-trouble-rock-military-111412/) provides an example of an irregularly occurring, but consistent, trend:
the tendency of certain public figures - most often, politicians - to gain additional attention by criticizing the indiscretions or personal moral failings of others. This derivative and public form of schadenfreude appears to be driven by some belief that the public critic will somehow benefit by "representing" a public outrage.
Clearly the activities and actions cited in the aforementioned Navy Times article - as well as in numerous other article and opinion pieces over the past week - raise serious questions about each individual mentioned, most notably General Petraeus and General Allen. In spite of that, I am still struck by the fact that our politicians are hardly paragons of virtue. Therefore, I sincerely hope that these civilian, so-called "public servants" do not attempt to aggrandize their own positions by criticizing the personal failings of others who they previously lionized via the very same fourth estate channels. That would be pure and unadulterated (pun intended) hypocrisy.
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