I Take Full Responsibility

It is a little embarrassing. Micheal Collins has an excellant piece called Scorn over "Buckeye Boo-Hoo" mystifies experts. He tries to explain why people are so hard on George Voinavich for crying at the prospect of John Bolton becoming ambassador to the U.N. Crying for politicians is not unusual.

“We don’t universally make fun of politicians when they cry – that’s the interesting thing,” said Randolph Cornelius, a Vassar College professor and researcher who has studied human emotions, and weeping in particular.

In some cases, in fact, letting the tears flow can enhance a politician’s image. Think Rudolph Giuliani and 9/11. Giuliani’s emotional, misty-eyed public appearances in the days after the terrorist attacks softened his brusque image as New York mayor and helped him build needed political capital, Cornelius said.

But George got all weepy over John Bolton.

Voinovich’s tears, however, seem to have diminished him in the eyes of some.

Supporters – and the senator himself – say he got all choked up while speaking out against John Bolton’s nomination as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because he feared for the country’s future if a perceived bully such as Bolton becomes a top diplomat.

His detractors have been far less charitable, suggesting that the senator has come unglued.

“Voinovich’s weeping is a little odd,” John Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, said in an e-mail interview. “If he cried every time he thought of a brusque federal official, Lake Erie couldn’t hold all the tears.”

I'm in the "unglued" camp. And I have no one to blame except myself. I voted for him. Sheesh.