What A Weiner

I generally avoid commenting on headline news items, and, even more diligently, the gossipy stuff.  But I'm going to break protocol here and talk about Anthony Weiner.  The simple fact is, I'm disgusted.

First off, I'm not a prude.  I care no more if people swap candid photos of their genitalia, precious bodily fluids, or even their mates, than if they swap baseball cards.  It's their business, and not mine. 

Second, this event strike me as being rather tragic.  I've seen Weiner (but not THE weiner, since I  haven't and won't go in search of the alleged lurid photographs) several times and he always displayed himself (so to speak) as intelligent, perceptive, and something close to a true progressive.

The thing that disgusts me is the stupidity of the actions - especially coming from a non-stupid person.  I know smart people sometimes do dumb things, but this was a pattern of activity with very little upside gain (I presume) and enormous downside risk.  What this indicates is a profound lack of judgment, in two separate ways.  First, this is the kind of behavior you might expect from a High School Sophomore, not a grown, recently married man with responsibilities.  Second, it's Twitter, for God's sake.  Did he expect that anything he said or did on that platform could possibly stay under cover?  Besides, there was just a similar event involving another congressman.  This is the sort of thing tabloids live for.

Another troubling thing is that this behavior violates his marriage - and he's a newlywed.  As I said, I don't care what sexual practices people engage in.  Notably, though, the wife was not present when he finally owned up to his actions in public.  And I realize shit happens.  But when one has a pattern of behavior that blatantly and recklessly violates marriage, one violates a trust.  That makes one untrustworthy.  And then he tried in an ineffective, half-assed way to weasel out of it for several days.  (That worked oh-so-well for Billy-Bob Clinton, lo, these many years ago.) That makes him, if not an actual liar, at best a half-assed weasel.

An untrustworthy, half-assed weasel, lacking in judgment.

That is why I think he is unfit for public office, and should resign immediately.

There's another possible nuance here, as well.  Since I haven't followed the story closely I don't know the relationships he's had (if any) with the recipients of the subject tweets.  But there could be an element of sexual harassment involved (though probably not with the porn star.)  I'm not making that accusation, since I don't know the details.  But it is an open question that needs to be resolved.  If there is harassment, then beyond all of the above, he would be a despicable human being.  I hope that is not the case.

 Untrustworthy ass-hat weasel is really quite bad enough.
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