Why is Christine Todd Whitman so whiny? Russ Smith addresses the matter in his NY Sun review of her new book: “The author spends a great deal of her book recalling her affluent childhood, citing her parents, both of whom were active in the New Jersey’s Republican party, as the catalyst for her career choices. A generation ago, Mrs. Whitman writes, politics was more genteel, without the polarization of today, and the GOP didn’t impose strict ‘litmus tests’ on its candidates. She quotes her father as saying long ago, ‘If you don’t participate [in elections], you lose your right to complain.’ The former governor then adds, in a schoolgirl tone, ‘When you’re a child that makes quite an impression – the last thing you want to do is lose your right to complain.’”