Loathsome.
Or, as I like to call it, selective outrage.
That is what bothers me about most of the sex cases that involve politicians though. The stupidity of their actions, the disregard for the people they might hurt and the implication that if you are that foolish and callous regarding sex why should you be trusted with anything else.
Proposed headlines for the NY Post in the coming days…
[ul]
[li]“Will Weiner Pull Out!?”
[/li][li]“Polls Show NY’ers Go Soft on Weiner!”
[/li][li]“Voter’s Have Had Their Fill of Weiner!”
[/li][/ul]
Feel free to add your own. This almost deserves its own thread.
“Weiner in a Deep Hole!”
Opponents attack Weiner with relish!
The Richmond Flying Squirrels minor-league baseball team is having “Scandal Night” for tonight’s game. In honor of Anthony Weiner, they are selling $1 hotdogs. Fans are supposed to tweet pictures of themselves “enjoying” their $1 dogs at tonight’s game to the team account and the most clever (and presumably publishable) picture will win some prize or another.
Brilliant.
He was actually a pretty awful congressman:
The examination of Weiner’s congressional record paints him as a legislator who liked calling press conferences and introducing bills, but rarely followed through. The only bill he wrote and sponsored that became a law involved reducing cigarette sales-tax evasion, which happened to benefit a major donor and family friend who worked as a cigarette distributor. Those who worked with him point to his famous explosion at Rep. Peter King over aid to 9/11 workers and his threat to hold up President Obama’s health care plan as examples of his willingness to torpedo hard-fought compromises so that he could get his sound bite.
Having met him three times at events he always struck me as a bigger asshole than the standard level of asshole most elected officials usually reek of. Ultimately the issue for me though is not his sexting per se or his general level of assholishness, its that the entire timeline of the scandal and how everything has played out, how hes acted in response, the interviews hes given, etc just leads me to believe that this guy lacks even the smallest amount of ability to be mayor and really needs some major help.
One more thing I forgot about, this is hilarious if only because of what we know now.
I stand corrected. He was just good at making himself look good, I guess. I didn’t really follow him that closely.
I should say that I don’t know how he was in terms of constituent services, I have never lived in his district, but as a legislator he was shit. Constituent services tend to be more of a function of staff anyway.
I’ve changed my opinion of him. He is indeed an asshole. But I do like hearing about him on the news now. Give up already! You’re embarrassing NYC!
My theory is that New Yorkers don’t really care about his sex scandal, because if it doesn’t really affect them, why do I care what you do? Which is why they were still largely behind him when he entered the race. But they DO care when somebody tries to make a fool of them. By continuing to do it after he said he stopped, Weiner basically just said a big “fuck you” to his supporters, and that’s not cool.
Basically, diddle whoever you want, but show me a little respect, at least.
I think that’s the lesson we can take from Spitzer and Sanford: being a lying, adulterous, hypocrite might get your kicked out of office, but it won’t KEEP you out. Only being a recidivist lying, adulterous hypocrite will do that.
Americans LOVE a redemption story.
My favorite so far was actually heard on Inside Edition or one of those “entertainment news” shows. Host Mario Lopez leads off the program with “Tonight, we have more on the exploding Weiner scandal!”. Someone deserves a raise for that one.
If I were an editor I’d run with the headline “Weiner Firm In The Face Of Opponents Mounting Pressure”
One of the things that Spitzer is doing “right” is that he is running for an office far lesser in stature than the one he abdicated, so he comes off as less obviously hypocritical and full of himself. Comptroller is an essentially meaningless job in NYC that exists only to set up a politician for a run for mayor and even though I think he is a grade a asshole; part of me is intrigued about the idea of Spitzer having control over the investment decisions and voting rights of the billions of dollars in public pension plan money.
Weiner was a terrible representative, resigned in disgrace and then decided his comeback would be running for one of the most important elected offices in the country. It’s a real shame that this election has become such a circus because it has diminished just how important this election is for the City, on par with 1977 and 1993.
Spitzer’s Comptroller run seems both entirely proper and entirely cynical at the same time. It’s clear he’s just doing it to retain some visibility while distancing himself from his scandals, but at the same time, at least he’s putting in the effort, you know?
I agree. I think it’s pretty obivous that a person with his enormous political ego has bigger ambitions than Comptroller. I think he wants to be mayor to be honest. He never really liked or seemed to care much about the rest of the state when he was gov. I am pretty sure he saw the NY Gov role only as a path to running for President. Today I think that his “brand” as a politician only has validity inside the city itself. I think he made the calculation that the next mayor has a good chance of being a failure and could be open to a challenge in 4 years(8 years worst case). Comptroller gives him some visibility and he can pull enough shenanigans for the next 4 or 8 years that he will elevate his brand to make him a serious candidate for mayor.
Watching the Democratic primary debate last night was so underwhelming. What a group of uninspiring people. None of them seemed up to the job of mayor. I really fear that the next mayor will be a disaster. Oddly enough, Weiner was the most polished and presentable of the group. (Considering he was a national political figure for a while its not that odd I guess)
Weiner didn’t thank his wife in his concession speach last night and then proceeded to flip off the crowd as he drove away.
Stay classy tony!