I'm really trying to put politics aside and just look at leadership in the most recent disagreements with the present administration, the past administration and Guantanamo Bay. Just in knowing I bring up 'politics' creates a fire storm of more 'rhetoric'. However, I have to go out on a limb here and begin to wonder what it says about leadership when the person who presides as CEO continually criticizes his successor? If your company has a new CEO (no matter how good or bad his/her predecessor was) and he/she continued to criticize the person before, what would you think about him/her and their ability to lead? Doesn't the person 'throwing dirt lose ground' as Zig Ziglar says? Somewhere the wisest man who ever lived said,

"When words are many, there is real trouble, but he who holds his tongue is wise."

And,

"With patience a leader can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone."

I guess I've always heard and tried to live with the idea that no matter how bad the person was who previously led, criticism only brings you down to their level and keeps you from moving forward.

rb