the "complexity of mankind": wise and gracious words for J. Edwards

I haven't read much of this blog, but this thoughtful post makes me eager to read more:

I also find it difficult to understand why many conservative bloggers can't entertain the possibility that Edwards feels genuine remorse over his conduct. To be sure, Edwards is a phony, and I've made that case in virtually everything I've ever written about him. Had this affair not been revealed, I'd have always remembered Edwards as the man whose phoniness, according to Bob Shrum, offended John Kerry.

But to have lived in the world, and to have understood the complexity of mankind, is to recognize that phoniness is not the same thing as an inability to have genuine feelings. To pretend frequently that one has extraordinary sensibilities is not evidence that one lacks ordinary sensibilities. A person with anything remotely resembling ordinary sensibilities would feel genuine remorse, and indeed shame, over the conduct involved here. Though we can't know whether Edwards possesses such feeling, those who assume he doesn't may be telling us more about themselves than about Edwards.

Piling on public figures after they are brought low by their human frailties is unseemly whatever the political affilation of the offender and whatever the ideological affiliaton of the critic.

Paul Mirengoff

Thanks, D.S. for the link.