Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk

SUSAN HAWK, the Dallas County District Attorney, went on leave from her job this week, saying she was suffering from “serious depression.”  Hawk has not just been depressed. She has reportedly exhibited serious paranoia and has been in drug rehab as well. Oddly enough (or perhaps this is a form of affirmative action), she is being praised for her courage in facing mental illness.

Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer writes:

Wednesday she posted a statement on her Facebook page saying the truth was that she had departed from her duties because she was depressed. This is the same person who went AWOL while running for election in 2013, said it was something about back surgery and then later (after she got elected) admitted she had left the campaign trail to be treated for addiction to multiple prescription drugs. 

After Hawk fessed up to the real reason for her most recent abstention,The Dallas Morning News editorial page immediately praised her for “taking control of her life and attempting to deal with the stresses that can exacerbate her condition.” The editorial said proudly that the paper “has been a leader in the ‘Erasing the Stigma: Mental Illness and the Search for Solutions’ initiative.’

“Stigmatizing those with mental illness only worsens the suffering,” the editorial decreed. “It denies the reality of diagnosable, treatable diseases. It drives a wedge between sufferers and life-restoring help.”

In her Facebook post, the district attorney said, “For the past three weeks I have taken a break from work in an attempt to work through a serious episode of depression. It was my intention to return to work this week, but I have been unable to do so.

As more female attorneys enter the top ranks of political office, one cannot help but notice the strain. Since the Democrat Kathleen Kane became the first female attorney general of Pennsylvania in 2013, she has filed for divorce, drawn enormous controversy for refusing to enforce the state’s marriage law, been charged with criminal offenses  for perjury and obstruction of the law — charges which may very well, as she claims, represent a political vendetta against her — and been accused of being ill prepared for the job.

Political life isn’t easy for men or women. But as a reader wrote of Susan Hawk, “Can we be honest: Maybe she isn’t cut out to handle the pressures of the job‏?”

— Comments —

Bert Perry writes:

Regarding the Susan Hawk saga, I tried to look up her bio, and nobody says anything about her personal life–I would presume that she’s been “married” to her job, which is something I tend to hold against male office seekers, too. If someone doesn’t have time for a spouse, that often indicates a lack of people skills that is a disqualification for high office.

Another really fascinating thing is the way she accused a subordinate of breaking into her home to steal a compromising picture. While she’s admitted that was false, it seems that unless she has totally lost touch with reality, she’s also admitted that she had such a picture (or pictures), that the subordinate was in a position to know about the existence of such pictures, and that the dynamics of her office were such that it was plausible that a disgruntled subordinate would commit a felony to get it.

Might have been nice in this case—and many other cases–if the media had done its job and learned a little bit more about this woman’s background before she was elected.

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