Workplace reaction to Conrad Black's downfall.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I work in a brokerage, so apart from myself and maybe three other people, it's pretty monolithically right-wing. However, the reaction to 'Lord' Conrad Black's troubles has been quite an eyeopener. Absolutely everyone despises him. Some call him a fraud, some a crook, others call him a mad Thatcherite throwback. Almost everyone calls him a traitor and an embarassment to Canada. One reaction was pretty odd though. There's an older broker, Mike, a very nice old man, but pretty obviously right wing. I was expecting a defence of Black from Mike, but if anything, Mike hates him the most. His specific reason is that Black wrote an autobiography of FDR which was quite complementary (apparently), and Mike despises Roosevelt for taking the dollar off the Gold Standard in order to fund the Welfare State, thus beginning deficit-spending.
Personally I don't believe FDR pulled out of the Gold Standard for that particular reason, but it's quite a bizarre comment. Does Black really appreciate FDR? That's quite bizarre.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Black's 1,300 page biography of FDR

has just been published, and it's apparently lauditory.

I'll say this for Black: he defies easy categorization. His mind is more complex than the sharks he swims with. Black may be a bastard and a crook, but he's not just a bastard and a crook.