Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plummeting fall from one of the “Golden Haired Boys” of politics shook the nation recently. The son of Jewish Eastern-European parents, Spitzer had grown up in Riverdale, NY and then attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Serving two terms as the New York Attorney General earned him the title of “the Sheriff of Wall Street.” He had cleaned up brokerage houses and insurance industry abuses and taken on the $187.5 million dollar compensation package of former NYSE chairman Richard Grasso, calling it excessive and out of line, and had won. Ironically, he had even overseen the busting of a prostitution ring in 2004 that brought 18 people down on prostitution and related charges.

Now, he has fallen himself. Revealed as “Client 9″ in investigative reports, Spitzer had met with a high-priced call girl from the Emperors Club VIP at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC the night before Valentine’s Day. And, investigations would show this was not the first time.

How sad it was to watch his shattered wife standing next to him, in humiliation, as he told the citizens of New York, “I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.” That will be a long, hard road.

But leaders litter the landscape with broken laws, broken marriages, broken lives and broken organizations….Tyco, Worldcom, and Enron just to name a few. And it has happened, and continues to happen, in every arena of life. Why?

Well, I am not the psychological expert who could best address the underlying struggles. However, I do believe that it has a lot to do with a statement I made in a book I wrote several years ago titled BENEATH THE SURFACE. That was that we are all ONE STEP FROM STUPID at any given moment!

Given that reality, it becomes even more important that we put into practice Proverbs 4:23 where we are counseled to ABOVE ALL, GUARD OUR HEARTS. And guards don’t just “happen” to be in place. They have to be posted. So, how are you doing in posting guards at your heart? After all, everything else will come out of that!

I was recently on a speaking engagment and working late at night in my hotel, and believe it or not, my channel surfing took me to C-SPAN. I know, you’re thinking, “Were you in a coma?! Bored out of your mind? Or, was it the only station working?!?!?!?”

Actually, I was caught by an unexpected event. Leaders of some of the nation’s largest lenders, and the Chairmen of the Compensation Committees of those institutions were being put under the gun. They were being grilled in an accusatory fashion regarding the sub-prime debacle. “Why,” they were being interrogated, “were the CEO’s paid large salaries and bonuses when lending practices exercised under their leadership caused a lot of problems to so many?” The tone was one of attack from many of the congressional sub-committee and there was no doubt left that many wanted to “barbeque” those who sat in front of them.

Now, I personally don’t claim to understand all of the nuances of the sub-prime lending issues. Nor do I hold a naive belief that everything that was done was perfect or even the best decisions. But as I watched I was reminded that leadership today has become a place where leaders are often presumed guilty until proven innocent. And, that it is hard to argue–or even hold your own– with those who print attacking reports by the score things were flying high and going great. No one was asking accusatory questions then, that I am aware of. These leaders were seen a great men allowing many to acquire properties they otherwise would have been unable to get. Whether it was the best approach and methodologand by ink by the barrel.

It interested me that I didn’t hear a lot of criticism about these leaders wheny is not the focus of this entry.

What is, is how fast people are ready to accuse, demean, berate and criticize those in leadership when there is a hiccup. And the arrows start flying…with one significant target–leaders who take risk. And after all, these leaders–while well compensated–also were in the role of large risk. Whether it was the exact right risk is not for me to say, that is the arena of financial experts.

But I was reminded that when you lead, and take the risk of trying new or different things, you had better be ready for the arrows that are likely to start flying! I know, I’ve been on the receiving end of some of these type of experiences. How about you?