Self Destruction.

This article on the implosion of John Edwards after his affair with a staff member became public is delightfully malicious in its trashing of the former potential president and his wife.

It does raise a dilemma that the equally spectacular implosion of Iris Robinson this week also brings up- when a politician you detest blows up spectacularly for reasons entirely unrelated to one's reasons for disliking them is it a cause for celebration?

I don't like seeing people destroyed for their personal failings because everyone has some personal shortcomings*. I suspect most people know it's wrong to destroy people over their private lives so they tend to find some hypocrisy angle to justify their prurience even though the argument is often rather tenuous- "Tiger Woods talked about his wife therefore we have every right to publicise his affairs".

It isn't that I think a politicians private life is completely off limits, the self destructiveness which they demonstrate in having such risky affairs is something we should know, but schadenfreude isn't an attractive trait.

* Mine include finding articles about people I dislike to be "delightfully malicious".