Changes

Paine's first mistake was to compromise his honor in exchange for an easy campaign to enter the Senate. One cannot truly compromise honor; one must either uphold it, or violate it. Paine stood in violation, and those violations came to haunt him, when a young man entered his life and reminded him of the less-corrupt man he once had been.

Paine's first mistake was to compromise his honor in exchange for an easy campaign to enter the Senate. One cannot truly compromise honor; one must either uphold it, or violate it. Paine stood in violation, and those violations came to haunt him, when a young man entered his life and reminded him of the less-corrupt man he once had been.

=== Lack of fatherly discernment ===

=== Lack of fatherly [[discernment]] ===

Joseph Paine was also less than discerning as a father. A good father does not raise a daughter who thinks nothing of "turning her glamor" on a man for political gain. Yet that is what Susan Paine did at a key point in the story. Toying with a man's emotions was a trick she surely must have learned early in Washington; perhaps the loss of her mother allowed this ethical lapse to become manifest more quickly than it otherwise would have. That Jefferson Smith meant less than nothing to her was clearly evident when Smith had called on Paine at his house and then been unable to hold his hat in his hand while speaking to her (not to mention his knocking over a table on his way out), provoking her to nearly uncontrollable laughter. She would never ask such a man to be her escort if her father hadn't told her to—and that her father would give her such an instruction, after telling another man that she was "not available to take assignments like that from anybody," was further evidence of Joseph Paine's moral compromise.

Joseph Paine was also less than discerning as a father. A good father does not raise a daughter who thinks nothing of "turning her glamor" on a man for political gain. Yet that is what Susan Paine did at a key point in the story. Toying with a man's emotions was a trick she surely must have learned early in Washington; perhaps the loss of her mother allowed this ethical lapse to become manifest more quickly than it otherwise would have. That Jefferson Smith meant less than nothing to her was clearly evident when Smith had called on Paine at his house and then been unable to hold his hat in his hand while speaking to her (not to mention his knocking over a table on his way out), provoking her to nearly uncontrollable laughter. She would never ask such a man to be her escort if her father hadn't told her to—and that her father would give her such an instruction, after telling another man that she was "not available to take assignments like that from anybody," was further evidence of Joseph Paine's moral compromise.