If I hold my breath long enough, will the Anthony Weiner media frenzy go away? We get it. A loud-mouthed liberal got his pants in trouble (in a virtual way, of course) and now we have to pile on and pile on and pile on until he is dead (politically speaking, of course).
Again, why didn’t the media do this to John Ensign? John Ensign’s story had everything: actual sex, adultery, betrayal of top staff, improper use of office, unethical efforts to pressure corporations into hiring unqualified people, hush money, another senator who acted as a bagman. The parents engaged in the conspiracy. There was a frat-house full of ostensibly Christian congressmen who were engaging in extramarital affairs, How much can you ask for in a political scandal?
By contrast, Rep. Weiner had sex with no one outside of his marriage, didn’t improperly use his office to try to cover up his stupidity, and hasn’t used Sen. Coburn as a hush-money negotiator.
Furthermore, Rep. Weiner enjoys nowhere near the power or influence of a U.S. Senator.
I’ve said before, I have no use for the guy. I don’t care what he does, but I don’t need to see him in public life ever again. But the same has been true of David Vitter for five years now. Are you telling me that hiring prostitutes to dress you up in a diaper and offer you lollipops is less of a problem than sending out twitpics of your junk? I mean, David Vitter is supposed to be a family man.
I’ve tried to avoid writing about this story but it just won’t go away. And, the fact that the story just won’t go away is the only really interesting and revealing thing about this story.
When someone finally gets the hard goods on Boehner’s extramarital affair, I expect less time to be spent on it than was spent on Weiner.
And, you know, August is coming, so it is almost time for our annual Rite of Stupid. Shall it be mocking purple hearts? Shall it be stalking Gary Condit? Shall it be another round of Reverend Wright (or Hoodlums in the Hizzouse)? Can we bring the Tea Party back in force?
If history is a guide, we might have a quiet July, but August brings something so stupid that no one could have anticipated it.
. . . the fact that the story just won’t go away . .
Exactly. The story of the story has become the story (overstating the blatantly obvious).
Leave it up to Democrats to keep a story alive. Like you, I don’t care for the guy but really, the only ones really driving this story are the Democrats and media. Is it simply because they are pissed that he lied to them, definitely ill-advised, but how is this constant narrative helping them? You do have to give it to the Republicans. They can definitely stay on (non) message.
what pisses me off is the democratic pile-on. Leahy had some remarks: I called up to ask if he’d called for Vitter’s resignation. “we don’t know.”
Did he call for ensign’s resignation. “we don’t know.” Then they tried to tell me he’d resigned years ago (leahy’s office apparently thinks people are stupid).
What about Larry Craig, mark Foley? “we don’t know.
Same with Allyson Schwartz, who’s done a hell of a lot worse than sending twitter pictures of her junk: she got people killed in Iraq and cast votes that directly led to the mortgage collapse.
Mind you, I have never heard one fucking republican say BOO about the perverts in their midst. You never hear McConnell ragging on diaper boy or any of those other shits.
I’ve read lot of places today saying that Dems calling for Weiner’s resignation are cowards are some such. That may be true of lesser Dems, but if there is 2 women who I believe are not and have never been cowards it’s Nancy Pelosi and Debbie W Schultz.
I think that of all Dems these 2 ladies are fighters and if they have decided that Weiner is not worth the fight right now, then I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt…
I agree about all the Vitter, Ensign, etc comparison in terms of Weiner, but dumping on those Dems who want Weiner to resign is what I don’t agree with.
Anyway, Greg Sargent has some reporting on why Nancy Pelosi may have gone from simple non-commital and turning to full resignation.
The backstory on Weiner’s implosion
By Greg Sargent
I still think it was overreaching for her to make any public judgement one way or another. There was no crime or even House rule infringement here. But she just couldn’t wait to get all hysterical and try to preemptively cover the Dems’ collective ass. In doing so, all she did was feed the media’s smarmy obsession.
Would you feel the same if Wiener was a Republican?
I’ve been, and still am, a fervent admirer of Pelosi and Schultz. So it’s sad to watch them blemish their integrity and courage with an unprincipled piling-on to please the “conventional wisdom” as defined by a sensation-starved media. Sanctimony for the purpose of CYA is always an ugly thing to see, and their moralistic scolding may prove as damaging to their reputations as Wiener’s failings have done to his.
They are, of course, entitled to their own opinions, and even to whatever backroom pressure they want to try. But making a public spectacle of their own electoral panic disguised as moral outrage is nothing short of sickening. Pelosi is speaker, not mama. The voters can decide soon enough whether they forgive Wiener for his sick behavior. It really ain’t Pelosi’s, or anyone else’s business to tell him or the voters what to do.
More from DWS who is one of the Dems calling for Weiner’s resignation.
Even though she calling for it, she is NOT going down that road without a fight
Wasserman Schultz Calls Out RNC Chair Priebus Sex Scandal Hypocrisy
I think there is a big difference between Ensign/Vitter and Weiner, and it’s quite simply this: Weiner loved to take pics of himself, quite a few apparently. Combine that with the chats and you have a media frenzy. It’s something the Ensign/Vitter scandals don’t offer. So it really doesn’t matter how bad (judicially and/or morally) these cases are. What matters is how they can be sensationalized in the media.
Yes. Because it’s about eyeballs, not meaning. Sensation is what the media does & then everybody reacts. Like a dog getting sick on its own barf.
Truth be told, though there is a double-standard, Democrats have to distinguish themselves from Republicans on things like this, for the long-run.
IOKIYAR