He couldn’t say anything to convince people that were going to be upset about graphical boner suggestions not to be upset. He lost that crowd from the offing. The only way he avoids getting them upset is by not taking snapshots of his batch, which we’ll go ahead and take off the table because it’s funny when I assume that that’s the only way he can get hard.
He could, however, have said, “Yo - that’s how me and my smokin’ hot missus roll.” Which may or may not be true. I honestly don’t care. In the mainstream, I think that would not have been more damaging than the very existence of the pictures would have been (meaning that mostly Republicans would be irritated with him), because a significant subset of the people who are cheesed with him right now (like Nancy Pelosi) don’t really give a crap what gets you firm so long as it doesn’t involve illegal activity. If the outrage doesn’t spread to the Democrats, this doesn’t rise above the level of any other run of the mill sex scandal, and quite probably flies lower on the radar. Hell - in this age of pop stars not wearing underpants and other pop stars having pictures taken of them covered in semen and a not-insignificant number of individuals being catapulted to fame through the production of unremarkable, unprofessional, and frankly unimpressive video of them copulating, floating a picture of your bulge (which, if we’re getting pissed off, I’d like to be the first to call for a hit squad on Tony Abbott - God knows that thing damaged my psyche more than the congressman has), or even one of how you’re totally supes boney rappin’ bout that nappy dugout with some random internet entity from Saskatchewan is small beans. If he acts like he hasn’t done anything wrong, at that point the worst that you can do is rip him for sounding like a paint mixer full of Superballs every time he jerks it. The injury he’s caused himself within his own party and the base that would have supported him otherwise is fueled by his initial lying and his tacit concession that this was a bad thing he did, and if it weren’t for that, we’d probably be talking about the debt ceiling or something right now instead of him. It’s the difference between a third position issue on the talk show circuit and a leading one.
Fair enough, Robert. I’m only guessing from the facts. It might be a simple bad habit or a real obsession. Who cares? All that matters is how to stop it, or to continue and accept the consequences if that’s what he chooses.
My guess is we’re all getting wrapped up in different terms. I should’ve thought more carefully about Ryan’s “seeking treatment” phrase. That seems loaded with the idea of clinics and high-powered therapists and whatever. (Though if he sincerely thinks he needs that, it’s not fair to call it “bullshit.”) I should’ve been more careful with the words “obsession” and “compulsion” too.
My frame of reference was having a chronic personal problem I wanted to solve and failing at it. I’d ask for a helping hand. That’s not medicalizing anything. It’s getting out of a rut. It happens to all of us to some degree.
Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with seeking help to change one’s life in some way. This particular instance just feels a bit like pandering. As you no doubt know (having gone through something yourself), you can’t get help until you want it. It’s possible that this case has shown him he really does need it. But it also looks like a political move at first glance.
Just to be clear: I’m not calling on Weiner to resign. I’m not joining the censorious, clueless, hypocritical chorus. Yes, more pictures are surfacing. Yes, innocent chats Weiner had with seventeen-year-old teenage “fans” are being held up as proof that he’s a pedophile in the making. (Because we all know that straight men are incapable of distinguishing between porn stars and minors and adjusting their conversations/tweets accordingly.) No, it’s the rehab thing that has me ready to the throw in the towel. As I said when the scandal first broke:
"While I hope Weiner comes clean, I hope comes out swinging: He didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t do anything millions of other Americans aren’t also doing, he didn’t break any laws. His privacy has been invaded. He’s being attacked. He is the victim here. And if doing what Weiner has done disqualifies a person from public life, there won’t be anyone qualified to be public life in ten years time save the Amish.
Now here’s what I hope the legally married congressman doesn’t do: confess to having a problem, blame “sex addiction,” check into the Tiger Woods Memorial Sex/Career Rehabilitation Center, resurface a month later Dr. Drew’s couch looking contrite, and apologize to the American people for being one of them."
By checking into rehab—by pretending that it’s him, and not the culture, that has a problem with sex—Weiner is sharpening the blade on the guillotine to which he’s been dragged.
And somehow “Vitter the Shitter” is still a senator.
While I hope Weiner comes clean, I hope comes out swinging: He didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t do anything [his wife isn’t] also doing, he didn’t break any laws. His privacy has been invaded. He’s being attacked. He is the victim here. And if doing what Weiner has done disqualifies a person from [marriage], there won’t be anyone qualified to be [be married] in ten years time.
…
By [getting whatever “help” he needs]—by pretending that it’s him, and not [his wife], that has a problem with sex—Weiner is sharpening the blade on the guillotine to which he’s been dragged.
I know the writer’s talking purely about the public angle and that’s all anyone cares about. But it’s still funny to picture Weiner trying the self-righteous defiance approach on his wife. What’s even funnier is the bitch slap he’d receive afterwards, haha.
He was doing a lot more than just cheating on his spouse, Jason. He was sending pictures of his schlong to random total strangers on the Internet. Not anonymously, but trading on his fame as a Very Important Liberal Fighter For Truth (who also happens to have a large schlong, hey laaaadies), and given that he is a public figure, thus handing each and every one of them the power to destroy his life at will.
That is not only reckless, it’s recklessness of such a great degree that either the person is utterly stupid (which doesn’t apply in Weiner’s case) or has an inability to control their destructive impulses. Which is, in fact, a mental disorder.
Clearly some see the man as incapable of sending an inappropriate text. Perhaps they do not acknowledge the possibility of one. It is those of us who sext in a manner that does not cause career-jeopardizing scandals who are at fault here. Villains! Inhumane robots! Wreckers!
I don’t have any real brief for Rep. Weiner. I didn’t really have strong feelings one way or another about him before this erupted, though I did find him entertaining. He certainly has some serious impulse control issues and he’s just reckless sending these possibly career-ending pictures to perfect strangers over the Internet. And he’s hurt his wife and possibly his unborn child through his recklessness – but that’s his and his wife’s business. Not mine.
But c’mon. At heart it’s still a BS story. I see a Member of Congress who’s totally embarrassed himself. But as I tried to make clear to staff last week it’s hardly a federal case. And his own constituents seem clear that they don’t want him to resign. So somehow the apparently unprecedented simultaneous demands for his resignation from the Minority Leader (Pelosi), the head of the DNC (Wasserman-Schultz) and the head of the House campaign committee (Israel) just strikes me as a degree of pomposity and over-serious high dudgeon that has somehow managed the improbable effect of making his dogged desire to hold on to his office in the face of seemingly daily humiliation look better to me than their stern-minded and ‘oh please!’ inducing calls for him to cough it up.
I’m surprised Pelosi has given this much of a crap, which indicates she’s pretty scared about 2012.
Given that, once the pictures were shared and the sexts were sent, I don’t think there’s anything Weiner could have said to get the democrats to stand with him. You may also be underestimating the power of a naked boner picture. That can’t be unseen, and it makes it hard (heh heh) to pretend everything’s fine and we’re all just in committees trying to put a budget together. I also think you’re trying to give the public too much credit as regards being able to reconcile his sending his dick pics to some women but only having chaste conversations about Batman with 17 year old girls, even if that’s true (it’s a lot to hang your career on, hoping that everyone was as old as they said they were).
I don’t think it’s normal, I just don’t think that’s anywhere near enough to qualify as a mental disorder without including something like a third of the population. People do fucked up shit all the time for sex.
He is quoting terrible behavior that should have never been tolerated (and wouldn’t have been under any other circumstances) and somehow finding a right to deceive the public. In a criminal investigation, as a public servant in matters of the workplace, there is no such right. No. Such. Right. Clinton’s actions and the reaction to them was a terrible precedent that should be rolled back, not reinforced. Where does this new right to lie end? I can only imagine how this is going to be used and abused. NOTE: Yes, I understand there is no actual ‘right’ to lie but certainly the principle is in full effect in at least some parts of the political landscape, to be sure.
Weiner’s privacy also wasn’t “cruelly” invaded; he posted a picture for 45,000 folks to see, lied about it for a week and allowed others to be blamed. Weiner isn’t the victim here and Dan Savage and anyone else casting him as such might as well drop all pretense and just come and and say that they think that he should avoid having to pay any cost for his actions. “Hey, he might be a lying perv douchebag but he votes the right way”. At this point it doesn’t appear to be criminal but we don’t know how far that goes because all we have is the women that have come forward and the word of a proven liar.
An appellate court upheld the ability of media organizations to lie. Now, that isn’t under oath, but otherwise to my knowledge, the courts have acknowledged the ability to lie is protected by the first amendment (there are exceptions of course).
And people with undiagnosed mental disorders don’t go to sex rehab, they see a fucking shrink and get on with their life, or get committed if they’re seriously endangering themselves or others. He’s stupid, and maybe he’s unbalanced, but he’s not a sex addict, or needing the politician bullshit Betty Ford treatment. Dan Savage got it right.
