Why on earth would Democrats stand behind a Congressman who made unwanted sexual advances to women? A few women have come forward saying that the Congressman was the initiator into sexual discussion and they didn’t want the conservation in that vein.
Forget the ick factor of the whole thing. Weiner was making lewd, unsolicited advances to a variety of women who weren’t interested. Isn’t that borderline sexual harassment?
Why would a party stand behind a guy who sends unsolicited crotch shots as a joke? The optics and PR of that are horrible. And this is one of the leading Democrat spokesmen.
Pelosi is doing the smart thing. B/c there would be a story asking why the Democrats are standing behind a guy who harassed women (If you believe that making quick transitions to sex talk or sending photos constitutes harassment, which I realize many here don’t)
The position of the Democratic party should be that Rep. Weiner needs to keep his dick in his pants and off of his camera, and that he and his wife clearly have some stuff to talk about.
That doesn’t mean that their position should be that he should be hounded into resigning and that his story should dominate the political mindspace for a couple of weeks while the country continues to not give a fuck, because his constituents don’t give a fuck.
Apparently Weiner’s presence on all the cable shows wasn’t an accident. Part of the terms of Leader Pelosi maintaining her minority leader position was that they allow some younger members of the caucus into leadership roles. Weiner was one such member. So the leadership was understandably peeved that while he was representing them in public he was pulling this stuff behind the scenes.
I still don’t think they should have yanked the rug out from under him. But this at least partially explains why the leadership was so pissed.
Has he made an appearance yet? If he comes out wearing nothing but briefs, he might be able to roll this into an underwear modeling career. Damn revolving door, and all.
Thought his speech was ok. The standard narrative for such cases usually would be “I didn’t do anything wrong, but the media campaigns and all the venomous comments are hurting my family and friends. I’m only resigning in order to protect them from further harm.” Weiner’s bit was more of a brief “Sorry, I screwed up.”
It does kind of raise the question of what’s next for him. I was surprised to read he doesn’t have a law degree. He started working for Chuck Schumer immediately after college and has been in politics since. I suppose he could join a lobbying firm, but it doesn’t really seem his style. Maybe a think tank, but again I think he loves being out in front of the cameras too much for that.
Vitter, AFAIK, didn’t photograph himself in flagrante with whores, post those pics to the Internet under his own name, then act surprised when they turned up publicly.
Weiner’s sin isn’t that he’s a dumbass; it’s that he’s a dumbass who didn’t know how to hide the bodies (metaphorically speaking). That’s just the way scandals work in this town.
“You don’t pay a hooker to fuck you. You pay her to leave.”
