Rundle's reputation deeply hurts her. Better said, Rundle is deeply hurt by the self-inflicted wounds that have produced her reputation, for it is she--not others--who has tied the tin can so tightly to her own tail.
When we repeatedly engage in self-injury even those close to us can be cruel, precisely because of that closeness, because they are invested in us.
Abraham Laeser showed his contempt for Rundle at every opportunity before* she became State Attorney. In administrative meetings Laeser routinely insulted and derided Rundle to her face and in front of her colleagues. Rundle's reaction to these incessant insults showed how painful they were to her--she silently looked down at the conference table.
I was in Laeser's office when the decision was announced that Rundle had been named State Attorney over Trudy Novicki. "Ah, Ranck you're going to miss me around here"* he said, believing himself to be as good as fired because of his long abuse of Rundle. Rundle kept Laeser on, an act some will see as evincing rare magnaminity and others typical bad judgment. However Laeser would not have wasted his bile on Rundle if she had been an office non-entity. It was precisely because she had an important position, important enough to be in an administrative meeting with Him, that he cared enough to insult her. He considered her unintelligence, silliness and all the rest to be an insult to the deadly serious mission of the office, justice.
*Before. After he found her to have many redeeming qualities.
**I would not have.
-David Ranck
