Unlike several media pundits and personal friends I respect who did not want him to step down, I did. From the very beginning of the mess. Yes, yes, the enormous hypocrisy of the Republicans and many media outlets in denouncing Weiner’s extreme lack of judgment in his Tweety world, is enough to make one furious, as was the usually calm though vocal Rachel Maddow when she went on a blistering rant last evening on The Rachel Maddow Show citing the hypocritical elements involved in the situation.
I too loathe the fact that Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R) remains in the U.S. Senate after acknowledging his illegal use of prostitutes. I too denounce the patting-on-the-back “It’s okay, we love you anyway” attitude former Senator John Ensign of Nevada (R ) received from his GOP buddies (and a surprisingly quiet reaction by media darlings) after the Big Reveal of his affair with a campaign staffer and an (alleged) pay-off of the woman’s husband via Ensign’s parents to stave off ugly ramifications.
As I wrote when the flurry of resignation demands hit Weiner in the face, the primary reason for my stand in wishing he would go away to a quiet nether-land was based on his week-long interview blast of lies and deceit. The man wouldn’t shut up. He created the monster that has slayed his career and reputation. Had he kept a low profile, refusing to go beyond a few well-crafted slippery words to those who wanted to hear what was going on with his Twitter-soaked Bulging Dong, perhaps he could have escaped his current fate.
No one likes a liar. It’s enough when so many powerful men who are married cheat on their wives or engage in base forms of sexual harassment. To continually deny such activities day-after-day, creating a story (the Twitter account “hacking”), looking interviewers in the eye to lie to those who can roast your cajones to millions of readers and viewers, is just plain stupid.
Sure, as anyone who has ever found one's self caught in a potentially embarrassing job- or spouse-losing scandal-of-sorts knows, it’s a knee-jerk survival response to attempt to avoid the inevitable hammer of disgrace by finding ways to make light of whatever the accusation might be, and/or to completely lie in hopes that everything will just go away and one can then get on with their day.
In Weiner’s cornered position as a married man with a very respected wife, and a public life of political service, who can blame him for initially publicly denying his secret weirdness? If he had been honest with his wife and privately decided to do whatever form of rehabilitation was/is necessary to discontinue behaving like a horny teenager on a Spring Break sexual binge, then it is ultimately no one’s biz, as I always say/write.
Weiner is by far not alone in Congress in having secrets to hide from colleagues and constituents. As many have joked over the weeks, if everyone in Congress had to be morally correct to do their jobs, most of Washington DC would be an empty parking lot.
In my humble opinion, if one is not a murderer or worse, then stay on, do the job, and, by all means, keep your mouth shut to the media – until you have gained enough strength to admit what you have done and go from there. Chances are Weiner would still be a Congressman today had he simply not panicked and gone on a Liar’s Media Rampage.
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