My wife and I recently purchased a new puppy. We were told, and our experience bears out that for the most part a puppy will avoid “soiling” its own box. It has been striking in this past campaign, that our elected officials, and those who aspired to become them, have no such tendency. In fact they spend millions of dollars to malign, slander and libel one another and bring disrespect to the offices they seek.

Challengers assert that they aren’t politicians at all, implying it is a dirty profession. Even incumbents do this, until their tenure in office makes it too embarrassing to continue. The absence of statesmen and leaders seeking public office is not surprising, given the perception of public service those campaigning for office encourage. The effort to disrespect their own profession is one of the few remaining bipartisan efforts.

Both parties’ candidates intentionally and personally attack their opposition. They willfully mislead the public on positions their opponents took, sometimes decades ago, and they always present them out of context. Is criticism of the administration’s handling of Iraq really blaming Americans for Sept. 11? Did anyone really vote to let veterans die in a Veterans Affairs hospital parking lot? Does anyone really support destroying our schools and exposing our children to sex predators?

Of course not. The parties simply disagree on foreign policy, the best means to educate our children and how to keep them safe in the meantime. Always have and always will – that is democracy, and constructive debate and attention to the minority make it all work.

This country faces numerous tough policy decisions that must and will be made. My preference is that these be made by the brightest statesmen and leaders who will listen to all perspectives and who conduct themselves so as to deserve our trust to do the right thing.

I am one of those naïve voters who lean one direction but routinely vote across party lines based on who they think can best do the job. This election I was only able to cast my vote based on which candidates had embarrassed themselves the least in the effort to get elected. All races were very close. In the end I hope the successful candidates will at least be smarter than my puppy and be the heroes this country needs to say, “No more!”