Oh, and...

Since the crying seems to have stopped, I think I'll add that my department is going through some particularly nasty politics at the moment and there's a meeting today where a lot of this is going to come to a head. To put it very briefly, department bully with a history of ethically questional behavior but lots of seniority is angling for a position of greater power and expects it to be handed to her since there is no one else in the running at this point. There is a resistence movement that might keep this from happening anyway (lack of department confidence may lead to an appointment of someone else) but the repercussions of standing in her way or making her have to work a bit harder for this are going to be unpleasant. However, knowing her likely reactions to the existence of the resistence movement are a large part of why there IS a resistence movement. Do you want someone insulting, punitive, insecure and paranoid to make the decisions for the next three years? No, but I still feel guilty for being part of the reason her paranoia may be justified.

It would have been nicer to deal with this on a full night's sleep.