The New Republic

correction: Wasserman-Schultz. not that she is such a great choice for DNC chair, but at least get her name correct. If Judis can not understand why this weiner-circus-of-his-own-making from someone whose sole strength is screaming on the House floor, who has the lowest voter turnout in 49 states because his constituents feel they have no choice so they stay home, well, maybe Judis should join Weiner on the unemployment line.

- K2K

June 17, 2011 at 12:55am

I agree with Judis and I'm extremely annoyed with the media also. Indeed, the crew at CNN was sitting around on the John King show, including Wolf, all looking solemn and congratulating themselves on their brilliant journalism in Uncovering The Truth About Weiner. SO I wrote them a letter asking them that in the great Weiner hunt they had managed to do what exactly? Accomplish WHAT? Meanwhile, they ignore important stories, nothing on what's going on out West with the fires, nothing about ongoing problems in Japan, they are somehow not menaced by the extremism on the Right - but Weiner? Oh man they are Woodward and Burnstein. NOT. It's a shame.

- Sophia

June 17, 2011 at 1:51am

Three things, at least, make Weiner's case distinguishable from other sex scandals: he is a digital flasher, foisting unwanted private images of himself and his private parts on others--including, as has been reported, of his erect, naked penis--such that his behavior evinces deep psychological problems; he mounted an unimaginably cynical campaign of continuous public lying in a conscienceless way to everyone with a microphone and a camera, letting blame fall on others--the same Breitbart, for example--when Weiner at all times knew the truth; and the combination of these two things made for such media circus distraction that he became an enormous political liability diverting his party from doing its business and making his political costs easily outstrip any benefits. Any politician supporting Weiner's staying on regardless would have been vicariously tarred and sullied by the brush of Weiner's addictive sexual misadventures compounded by his serial lying, which only self interestedly stopped when it became clear he could no longer get away with it. Given this, it is a kind of fatuous, empyrean foolishness for Judis to excoriate high ranking Democrats for not standing up with with, and for, Weiner. The powers that be did the right thing politically by pressuring him to resign and he, finally, did the right thing from every point of view by in fact resigning.

- basman

June 17, 2011 at 2:00am

John Judis is the archetypal liberal He has no sense of decency, of honor, of morality. He cares about nothing, he loves nothing, he believes in nothing. He, along with his hero Anthony Wiener, is utterly contemptible.

- bulbman1066

June 17, 2011 at 2:11am

Maybe John Judis' ostentatious moral degeneracy is at long last passing out of fashion in the Democratic Party. Maybe the condemnation of Wiener among Democratic leaders is sincere. Skepticism wars with hope.

- bulbman1066

June 17, 2011 at 2:37am

"Ostentatious moral degeneracy"? On Judis's part? I don't necessarily agree with Judis regarding Weiner, and basman makes a strong case as to why Weiner's case should not be lumped with prior sex scandals such as Lewinskygate--there's a big difference between consentual sex between adults and flashing either in person or online, the latter being more in the realm of sexual assault--but you, bulbman are nothing but a buffoon.

- AaronW

June 17, 2011 at 4:00am

bulbman1066 If manipulating the American Public with lies is what you are referring to as decency, honor, or morality, I would have to agree. Otherwise, after eight years of our having to eat that sort of cr*p from Bush and Cheney, your comment is, at best, tunnel vision.

- Nusholtz

June 17, 2011 at 6:15am

No sympathy for Weiner here. He has been incredibly reckless for years and sending photos of your junk and engaging in sex talk with porn stars on the Internet is the height of recklessness. Of course it is bizarre that a member of Congress just resigned for not having sex in a "sex" scandal, but what kind of a moron sends photos like that in a manner in which they can be easily found, traced and used against him. We're fortunate the entire thing became public rather than used as a weapon to blackmail Weiner and bring far more discredit upon Congress and the Dem caucus. Oh, and lest we forget: He lied repeatedly about the whole thing once he was caught. Unique? No. But probably the final lit match in his orgy of self-immolation. A man as reckless and foolish as Weiner was going to destroy himself, one way or another, sooner or later. Better to get it out of the way now so we can go back to focusing on the GOP plan to destroy Medicare and the rest of the progressive social safety net. Individuals matter to me, of course, but individuals who repeatedly go out of their way to self-destruct matter a lot less. No sympathy here. Only relief he has finally been forced to do the right thing so we can get back to fighting the battles that really matter.

- DC Spence

June 17, 2011 at 6:57am

Wiener should have stayed. He was a jerk, and nobody liked him - perhaps especially Pelosi and Debbie whatsername. Who cares what or whom they like? The House is America's most democratic institution, with hundreds of members serving two-year terms, constantly having to run for office and respond to their constituents. That is what the founders intended, and Wiener's resignation simply was not responsive to the desires of his constituents. I agree with Judis. This is why the Democrats are being pushed around by Republicans on every front. They have no backbone. Neil

- purcellneil@aol.com

June 17, 2011 at 7:41am

Weiner's behaviour was thoroughly repellent. I believe had he simply engaged in some bona-fide extra marital sex, he would have been forgiven but his actions are exactly what the law describes as "lewd". What saves him from legal complications I think is that it was all done in the virtual world with the tacit consent of the recipients of those images. There is something creepy about the whole thing. And he has not conducted himself with dignity. He tried to lie his way out of the mess, due to panic and a concern for his own skin. That's not the kind of behaviour I would accept from an elected leader. The Democrats were correct to throw him away. He is a genuine embarrassment.

- noga1

June 17, 2011 at 7:45am

I somehow agree with everyone. I won't justify Weiner's bizarre behavior but I don't think he should have resigned.

- WandreyCer

June 17, 2011 at 7:54am

I admire Judis' heightened sensitivity to betrayal of a friend, but I think he is wrong to expect the Democrats to spend lots of political capital on someone hell-bent on self-destruction.

- rayward

June 17, 2011 at 7:54am

Judis has it backwards. The Democrats did not abandon Weiner. Rather, he had abandoned the party by his reckless personal behavior which when known -- which was inevitable given the repeated and widespread emails -- which would have seriously hurt the party and its effectiveness. Put it this way: If you want the Democrats to be writing and enforcing the laws on a federal and state level, then the party can't be seen as associated with Weiner's behavior. As an experienced elected official he knew (or should have known) that he was willingly putting his party and its principles at risk, but he did what he did anyway. He left the party with no choice. The only thing that might have saved him would have been overriding personal loyalty. But that apparently didn't exist, also because of his behavior over the years. Politics is rough and tough and the stakes are immense. Weiner abused the system and got what he deserved.

- PeteBeck

June 17, 2011 at 8:29am

The Democratic leadership probably wanted Weiner out of the way because of the attention he brought to (1) his embarrassing psychological problems and, potentially, (2) his wife (and Hilary Clinton's assistant) Huma Abedin's family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, that moderate Islamist organization.

- amidut

June 17, 2011 at 8:41am

I really thought he would stick it out.

- stanmvp48

June 17, 2011 at 8:46am

Wandrey speaks for me on this matter. I feel exactly the same way.

- liberalref

June 17, 2011 at 8:48am

Oh, please. "Shame on them"? "Weenies"? Are we at the "I'm rubber, you're glue" level of playground discourse then? "Lewd Conduct" fits the charges very well. It actually came at a good time -- everyone was so tense about the Debt-Ceiling raising, this let people focus their laser-like intensity on something completely trivial. But now it's time to get back to the Debt-Ceiling debate, so it's a good time for Weiner to put it to rest by resigning. I'll note Hillary hasn't fired his wife in a "you're all POISON" attitude, so it's not like we're trying to kick the family out of politics root and branch.

- AllanL5

June 17, 2011 at 9:14am

"Rarely ousted a politician over one"? They almost always oust the politician, Bill Clinton being one notable exception. Where did you think NY-26 came from, harsh language? From that guy with the Appalachian Vacation to Garry Hart to John Edwards to Ahnold Schwarzenegger, sex scandals always damage the politician's political life. You might want to re-think your response.

- AllanL5

June 17, 2011 at 9:18am

The Democrats emerge cleaner Without the turgid Weiner.

- JackR

June 17, 2011 at 9:24am

basman really nails why Weiner's behaviour IS different, and PeteBeck has it: Weiner merits no political capital from the Democratic Party. In any other work venue, he would have been fired for conduct unbecoming. amidut: whether Huma's family has links tothe MB is nowhere near as interesting as that the Brooklyn GOP is considering Andy Sullivan, the articulate construction worker who led the fight against the Ground Zero Mosque, as their candidate in the special election. All this talk of Weiner's CD being eliminated in the redistricting is unrealistic because NYC has gained population. CD22 (Hinchey) or CD4 (McCarthy) are much more likely to disappear. But, Weiner's CD9 WILL be redrawn because the demographics have increasingly started to mimic Israel - so many former Soviet Jews and ultra-orthodox...and the Dems really do draw lines in order to dilute those voting blocs lest any kind of republican gets elected inside NYC except for Staten Island. Weiner probably now has to convince his Co-op Board to NOT terminate their Proprietary Lease, which I am sure is under consideration until the media disappears from the street.

- K2K

June 17, 2011 at 9:31am

"Weenie Democrats: Shame on the Party for Abandoning Anthony Weiner" Really? So as a democrat who favored his resignation, I should be ashamed for opining that a congressman who carried on illicit online relationships with lord knows how many women (at leasts one of whom it seems might be underage) while his wife was carrying his child; who exhibited such a profound lack of judgement as to send naked pictures of himself in an age when you can't throw a rock without hitting a celebrity brought low by the same behavior; and who, when cornered, concocted a wild story about being framed and victimized and swore up and down to his innocence....? This opinion makes me a "weenie" and I should be ashamed for saying this man should voluntarily resign from his position of trust paid for by the American people? Hey Judis, go f yourself.

- Tristan

June 17, 2011 at 9:48am

Amazing partisan blinders worn by Judis. Democrats did not abandon Weiner. He drove them away with his radioactive, obviously false explanations. Who in their right mind would stand with him? Certainly not his wife. In fact, many withheld judgment until it was clear that the Congressman was a lying, perverted narcissist wrapped up entirely in his own plans for political ascension. Although he was a contentious presence on cable, he had no weight. Just volume. With these revelations, he now has no future. Maybe if he had admitted immediately that he had a sexual issue and pledged then to seek help for it, he might have been able to stay. But he didn't. He lied in a way that scuttled all credibility. Democrats did the right thing.

- emccded

June 17, 2011 at 10:32am

It appears the Dem leadership ditched Weiner in part because his grandstanding (which I always enjoyed) was not really designed to serve the caucus or some "progressive" movement, but rather to put himself in a good position for his next run for mayor of NYC.

- Pnaut

June 17, 2011 at 10:35am

At another website I defended Weiner vigorously because I believed his lie, that he had been hacked. I, along with a host of people, excoriated and accused the individual who saw the picture and forwarded it to Breitbart as being guilty of hacking into Weiner's website. As basman said, all this time Weiner knew he had done it, knew there were more pictures out there. I truly felt people were rushing to judgment against Weiner (as many did with Gore and the supposed sexual assault of a massage therapist) and now that ASSHOLE Weiner will make it all the harder for people who do suffer from false allegations to be believed. He can go to hell for all I care. As to his resigning, good lord, this is about what is best for the country...not for his career. Weiner going down is best for the country, he is a Public servant.

- blackton

June 17, 2011 at 10:48am

Come on, John. He was urged to leave not for sex, but because he LIED to Democratic Party leaders as well as to the public. Nor was the underlying conduct sex. It was hopelessly stupid teenage-style exhibitionism and narcissm, from someone who had been put forward as a national spokesman for the party. Weiner put private titillation before the public good -- and the negative consequences were likely to go on and on and on if he stayed in office. I am disappointed that you, John, and TNR are perpetuating the fuss about this. He stepped back. Done. We do not need endless navel-gazing and guilt-tripping among Democrats. We may not need to censure people for sexual foolishness. But we as a party desperately need leaders and spokespersons who have judgement, maturity, and good values. Weiner was given a chance and he flunked. He needed to go. And the rest of us need to stop fussing about him before the commonweal. You, John, of all people should be able to see that.

- Skocpol

June 17, 2011 at 10:53am

On one side we have a veritable rogue's gallery of weak-kneed, lily-livered weenies- Pelosi, Reid, Wasserman-Schultz, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Barack Obama, and far too many others to list. On the other, we have a hero, bravely withstanding a media firestorm, which inexplicably erupted when he sent pictures of his penis to unsuspecting women (haven't we all?) and someone with a Nabokovian flair for language noted that his surname can be a synonym for - wait for it - "penis". (The connection escaped me, as I'm sure it did you, until I heard a late-night comedian make a joke about it - I guess those guys earn the big bucks for a reason.) Initially, Weiner was so certain that the actual facts of his encounters would cover him with glory, that he didn't bother to present the facts as a defense. Instead, like the prosecutor in the case of Kwik-e-Mart vs. Marge S., who was so confident of his case that he invited the jury to "rate the superhunks" instead of presenting evidence, Weiner turned to performance art, talking of things that never were in a way that couldn't help but recall the idealism of Bobby Kennedy. Of course this was lost on the audience, as all good performance art always is (if the yokels "get it", it ain't art), and Weiner was forced to swap artistic license for the "truth". People who had previously never given any thought whatsoever to the propriety of sending penis photos to virtual strangers (or are they literal strangers, contacted virtually?), suddenly and opportunistically decided that this was not something a congressman should do, and pressured him to leave. (An awful side-effect of this whole affair is that it's no longer enough to read the House ethics code - apparently it's not, as you would think, a comprehensive list of everything a congressperson shouldn't do. I'm sure that right now there's a congresswoman wondering whether she could send a shot of her breasts to a fan without getting in trouble. It's a tough call, but if I were her, I'd lean on the side of caution, at least until the storm subsides.) What's most disgusting is that Repubs would never, ever do this. They defend their own - whether they be thin-skinned half-term governors with scant knowledge of public policy but a bushel basket of grievances, Senators who cavort with prostitutes or cover up adultery with bribes, serial philandering adulterous bigots, and a host of garden-variety homophobes, Islamophobes and people who wouldn't tell the truth about policy if you held a gun to their heads (which, I hasten to add, Dems are generally too spineless to do, due to their ridiculous gun-phobia - if only we could get a bunch of black folks to show up at Repub rallies with guns and signs threatening "second amendment remedies" a whole lot of our problems would go away, but that's another rant). It's hell being a Democrat, but we can hope that someday we will be every bit as disgusting and unprincipled as Republicans. L'affaire Weiner is a setback, but maybe not a permanent one, if the ignominy of Weiner's mistreatment finally makes the Dems throw off the shackles of decency and get down and wallow in the muck where the sausage is made. Know hope.

- Geoff G

June 17, 2011 at 11:04am

now the toxic distraction settles in NYC - Weiner ran his House re-election from an office in Manhattan, a very long subway ride from his CD, and already has $3.5million in campaign donations for his mayor run in 2013. As a Schumer protege, the fallout may also damage Chuck's leadership role in the US Senate.

- K2K

June 17, 2011 at 11:10am

And, to echo a couple of people here, he's married to a senior State Dept official/appointee and what he did made himself and by extension his wife potential blackmail victims for political purposes. It strikes me as ludicrous that it rarely seems to dawn on anyone that foreign intelligence services could be interested in, for example, a midwestern Senator with a very embarrassing double life who also sits on a major legislative committee like foreign affairs or armed services.

- ironyroad

June 17, 2011 at 11:12am

This is a short-sighted and too-partisan article. For once, and this happens only rarely, I think that John Judis is completely wrong. The reason is this: throughout the country, and world, there is a widespread and growing distrust of politicians of every political stripe. The Tea Party zealots are feeding on that disaffection and even those who are not on the fringes of any political movement too often mistrust legislators, judges, administrators and others. If we are to restore people's trust and respect for government, we have to root out those who give it a bad name. While the result may seem harsh in specific cases, those who seek public office should know that, in accepting the honors of their positions, they will be held to strict standards of conduct. We can't survive as a nation of laws when members of the public distrust politicians and question both their ethics and their motives. When politicians have abused the public trust, then they have to be removed from office if they don't voluntarily resign. It doesn't matter whether they are Republicans, Democrats or otherwise affiliated. .

- putbrown

June 17, 2011 at 11:14am

Bravo! American elect politicians not monks. Yet they demand that all politicians, particularly members of the opposite party will act in perfection with their proffered guidelines. Legislator are for legislating not for being perfect husbands or wife's. True Wiener is an idiot for endangering his political career as did what's his name now on CNN. Let the voters decide not Obama who has a profound dislike to any Jew unless they serve him as White House Jewish clowns saying yes Sir to his every dictate against Israel and pro-Arabs. A democrat since 1976 and now an independent thinking of registering Republican. One thing I have no doubt about. I will vote for the one chosen to run against Obama the anti- Semite. I survived the Shoa so of course I never support anti- Semites. American is time to grow up! Stop looking in other people's bedrooms as low life peeping Toms.

- Poupic

June 17, 2011 at 11:16am

Once and for all, it's not about the sex. It's about his willingness to very boldly lie about it and to try to blame it on someone else. If it was nothing to be embarrassed about and there's no shame, then why make up the elaborate lies. Yes, a lot of men in politics get caught in sex scandals; it will probably only be weeks or months before another one happens. I'm not a prude, but IMHO, there's another factor--the "creepy" factor: Unlike the guy caught in a relationship with a mistress or even a prostitute, this guy is just an online flasher looking for anyone, anywhere to show off his penis to. Garden-variety infidelity seems quaint and discreet by comparison. The creepy factor, plus the lying, plus (I might add) Weiner's extreme narcissism, was just a little too over the top for me, as one of his constituents. I think he showed he was more interested in serving himself than his constituents. No one is indispensable anyway.

- kaybee

June 17, 2011 at 12:06pm

Weiner who?

- arnon

June 17, 2011 at 12:55pm

I'm with blackton's anger on this one. The guy shamed the office, lied to everyone about it, and had become an enormous political liability. In my view they couldn't push him off the plank fast enough. I have great respect for John Judis. In particular I usually line up with his desire to keep the Democratic Party from floating free of what's left of its working-class connections. Which is partly why I was astonished to see this uncomprehending defense of disgraceful and disgusting behavior. Not very often would I say that JBJ doesn't get it. This time, however...

- mjhollerich@stthomas.edu

June 17, 2011 at 1:01pm

AllenL5: "'Rarely ousted a politician over one'? They almost always oust the politician, Bill Clinton being one notable exception." David Vitter not only was not ousted from the House, he's now a Senator. What is rare is for the politician's party to call for his ouster. What may have made this situation different is his lying to party leadership for days. Leadership doesn't want to be seen defending someone who can't be trusted to tell them what's really going on, because when more information comes out then it reflects badly on everyone. If Weiner had been honest about his mistakes from the start, then maybe he would have had more party support. But it's difficult, if not foolhardy, to defend someone that you can't trust.

- dsimon

June 17, 2011 at 1:13pm

I second basman and DC Spence. Judis's point is silly. It is not a "sex scandal." It is a "behaving in weird, creepy, unsolicited ways toward members of the public" scandal. While extra-marital sex is hardly admirable, the motivation is rather clear and experienced by millions, whether they succumb or not. Indeed, we expect normal people to feel sexual desire toward people not their mates and our society is in over-drive encouraging such feelings. ' Weiner? Beyond the pale. He would have been a millstone around the neck of the Democratic party and Pelosi and Obama are right to have understood that and called for him to go. For the good of the party, he needed to leave.

- roidubouloi

June 17, 2011 at 1:16pm

I think there is a rare consensus on this thread that Judis is wrong and Weiner deserves being pilloried. Let's toast this rare moment! poupic: I don't get how you made the leap from Weiner's shooting himself in both feet to antisemitism and Obama. I am hardly a fan of Obama but I can't see how he can be blamed for Weiner's sickly vulgarities. Or how this can be attributed to antisemitism.

- noga1

June 17, 2011 at 1:18pm

poupic appears to only have one thing to say on TNR Online, because he keeps repeating it: "Obama is an antisemite, and I should know, because I survived the Shoah."

- zardoz67

June 17, 2011 at 1:28pm

One must ask about TNR columns like this whether the magazine and its authors' principal goals are to be contrarians for the sake of generating reader interest at the expense of common sense. I ask Mr. Judis to rewatch the reading of one of Mr. Weiner's email exchanges on last week's Bill Maher HBO show and tell us again, with a straight face, that the Congressman's fellow Democrats were not wise to urge his resignation. I am not a prude, but I believe that allowing the Congressman -- and, by extension, fairly or unfairly, his party and his political philosophy -- to be such an easy target for ridicule would have been the height of irresponsibility. The Dems did it right, and Mr. Judis and TNR, while again provoking interest, have embarrassed themselves.

- NR152987

June 17, 2011 at 1:45pm

Irony, that was a great point. Kudos.

- Tristan

June 17, 2011 at 2:16pm

Who cares.

- IggyPop

June 17, 2011 at 2:20pm

OK, so being a sleazebag isn't illegal; yet being a liar is pretty bad and might even be illegal from a member of Congress regarding his activities while in office. Of course, Judis is on to something here: the Congress is so full of lowlifes that picking on Weiner could be highly partial. The entire political arena is a disgrace.

- machan

June 17, 2011 at 2:23pm

Lost in the shuffle: Weiner's actual constituents. Don't they count? In a "democracy," what about the VOTERS? Polls showed they didn't want him to leave. What a mockery this is. It reminds me of the attack on Lieberman, which was national and well-organized and targeted on this ONE Senator, when indeed many, many had voted for Iraq. Most in fact. So when national leaders like Jesse Jackson show up in Connecticut, that means what? Why weren't they in New York trying to get rid of Hillary Clinton? PS this isn't a defense of Lieberman, the war which I was AGAINST, it isn't a defense of Weiner because indeed, his problems with the "truth" as stated hilariously by Geoff G are indeed a very serious problem - on the other hand he was probably terrified, among other things, of losing his wife. So no - this isn't really about any one guy or his behavior - rather it's about targeted and hypocritical displays of anger not to mention media firepower which amazingly ignores important issues, then congratulates itself for truthiness, exposure thereof, while the forests burn. Not to mention the rights of actual voters who apparently are pretty unhappy to have lost their Congressman.

- Sophia

June 17, 2011 at 3:29pm

Clink!

- ironyroad

June 17, 2011 at 3:32pm

If Weiner was a garden-variety Democratic back-bencher (a la my Congressman, Mike Doyle), his pecadilloes would not have gotten much notice and most likely no one would have been asking him to resign -- though note that, over on the other side of the aisle, John Boehner quickly pushed out Republican back-bencher David Souder after he admitted to an extra-marital affair with an aide, so the goal posts might be moving. But Weiner was not a back-bencher or a quiet, inside operator whose transgressions would not move the earth even if he lied about them. In his case, the lying and the tawdry nature of the accusations would have continued to haunt him until he quit. And, unlike Clinton, he is not the President nor was he a target of contast Republican witch-hunts. He was dispensable and his staying was causing much more harm than the good he gave to John Judis.

- wildboy

June 17, 2011 at 4:14pm

"Indeed, the crew at CNN was sitting around on the John King show, including Wolf, all looking solemn and congratulating themselves on their brilliant journalism in Uncovering The Truth About Weiner." I didn't catch this on TV, Sophia, but your comment reminded me of a fitting quote by Montesquieu: "Solemnity is the shield of idiots."

- khellaf

June 17, 2011 at 4:23pm

basman— You write, “. . .[Weiner] is a digital flasher, foisting unwanted private images of himself and his private parts on others, including. . .his erect, naked penis. . .” In the one transcript of Weiner’s exchanges I’ve heard (which was read aloud, verbatim, on the Bill Maher show by BM and Jane Lynch), it was the woman (reportedly a Blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, named Lisa) who asked Weiner to send her a photograph of, well, his weener. I readily admit that I have tried to avoid most of the relentless coverage of this story, so I may have missed something, but it appears—at least judging by this one quoted text—that Weiner was not, as you put it, a “digital flasher, foisting unwanted private images of himself and his private parts on others.” The woman in this exchange with AW clearly did want—and did request—those “private images. . .of his private parts,” and made said request in no uncertain terms. Here’s the relevant part of the exchange (which follows several minutes of dialogue in which the woman is clearly encouraging Weiner not only to get aroused, but to climax—“I love when a guy jerks off on the phone for me,” she says, not long before the following): AW: “Ridiculous bulge in my shorts now. Wanna see?” WOMAN: “Yeah, can you send a pic?” So it would appear from this exchange, if it is at all typical of the many such exchanges he reportedly had, that the cybersex Anthony Weiner was engaging in was at least consensual (if admittedly ill-advised).

- BenNevis

June 17, 2011 at 5:18pm

Is Judis saying that John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson to procure whores for him? I thought they hated each other. As ot the rest of his comment, what they said. And for giving credibility to Andrew Breitbart, meaning even more Democrats have to treat strange or mentally ill people making weird requests with suspicion that they are hiding a hidden camera and mike in order to turn a moment of good manners or confusion into a viral video.

- SFergessen

June 17, 2011 at 5:21pm

That's correct Ben Nevis. If you are involved in politics, you are very careful of acceding to weird requests from strange people.

- ironyroad

June 17, 2011 at 7:43pm

I guess Judis does not understand how the Dem machine works in the boroughs - Schumer passed on his seat to his protege. puhleez stop worrying about Weiner's constituents. I am really looking forward to see how many finally come out and vote, without him on the ballot. Maybe more than 30% turnout, for a change? of course, Weiner could change his name by claiming matrilineal descent from his Italian Catholic mother, and run for mayor, which is all he has been doing for the past two years anyway. Even better, run for NY State Assembly, and get a job for life, start a Medicaid clinic on the side, and wait for his federal pension kicks in.

- K2K

June 17, 2011 at 7:45pm

"...Weiner's life has been nothing but Congress. Nothing but government. Nothing but taxpayer-subsidized self-perpetuation. In other words: the life of a pathetic public leech."

- dalefogden

June 17, 2011 at 11:40pm

Public servants now equal pathetic public leeches? Who knew. Somebody please inform the army, the police, the firefighters, the teachers - oh wait. I guess we've already told the teachers.

- Sophia

June 18, 2011 at 2:43am

If anyone wonders why congress' approval rating hovers around 20%, it's because the public views them as the worst of the worst. Far worse than CEOs. At least CEO's go to jail when they do wrong. Not congress. Wiener's ability to lie and bully reporters is shameful. That someone could be in the wrong and casual about it is scary. It cuts directly to moral character. We want people in congress with a conscience. With a belief that truth matters. With the ability to say "That's might not be wrong, but it wasn't right, and I will correct the matter" What Weiner did might be fine for a delivery truck driver. Or a mid-level manager at a manufacturing company. But not the US congress. If they are going to write the laws, they need to absolutely be held to a higher standard. A much higher standard. They should go out of their way to avoid the appearance of impropriety. If they get a mortgage, it should be at the market rate + 0.25%. They are well paid. Their perks run deep. They can afford it. THAT is what is required. The other leaders in congress would do well to adopt a zero tolerance policy. First sign of somehting shaky and you are gone. Tax mistakes? Gone. Love child? Gone. Infidelity? Gone. BJs in the oval office? Gone. Soliciting sex in a bathroom? Gone. Mortgages below market rate? Gone. A pass can be given for lapses in judgement that happened a while ago. But for the here and now, zero tolerance. We should strive to get to a point where the citizenry says "You know, I don't always agree with the laws Congress makes, but I am certain they are looking out for my best interest and I really do believe they are all decent folks" Nobody believes those in congress are decent folks today. Unfortunately, for people like Judis, it's all about "the team".

- seattleeng

June 19, 2011 at 1:17pm

What Weiner did was private and personal. The things he'd done wrong are mild infidelity to his wife and lying when he was first caught. Oh, and resigning. This "scandal" really uncovered two ugly things about people: hypocritical prudishness and an inability to accept reality. Both are more disgusting to me than any of the pictures of Anthony's weiner. The prudishness is either hypocritical or pathological. I don't buy that much of the outrage is genuine. I think it flows from peoples' own personal denials and a neurotic need to protect their sense of decorum. I believe Democrats turned on him because they didn't particularly love him as a legislator. I don't think the same standards would have been applied to more centrist Democrat, not in the least. I find it hard to get worked up over infidelity. At this point, all it means is that these people are people.

- arock28

June 19, 2011 at 2:45pm

This "scandal" really uncovered two ugly things about people: hypocritical prudishness and an inability to accept reality. Is the goal of "reality" absolute inhibition? Anything shy of total carte blanche acceptance per sexuality is prudishness? No room for proprieties?

- jacko

June 19, 2011 at 5:33pm

I don't know what you're getting at with the "carte blanche" stuff. Seems like a straw man to me. I think a person's sexuality is their own private matter and I wouldn't ever deny anyone, even a politician, the right or freedom to explore. The man isn't even accused of having sex. The real story isn't about Anthony Weiner. It's about the bullshit social theater that's led to his destruction. And if he did it to himself, it's only because he should have been able to predict the bullshit social theater, not because he committed any sin against the electorate or his party. I'd like to see the world stop with the fake outrage every time a politician shares his penis with a woman.

- arock28

June 19, 2011 at 9:43pm

So disapproval of an unsolicited picture of an erect pecker is prudish? I suppose laws against "flashing" are a matter of unenlightened constriction.

- jacko

June 19, 2011 at 10:10pm

Whereas I tend to agree with the spirit of arock's argument, I have to agree with the letter of jacko's. This isn't about sex. This is about the electronic equivalent of flashing in a corner at the end of the shopping mall where you failed to notice the security camera. Yes, you'd lose your job for that, which wouldn't necessarily happen if you were having sex in private with your next-door neighbor. Indeed, I'd go farther and say that this scandal (let's call it that for convenience) is not only not about sex, it's about the new phenomenon of non-sex. If Wiener had met one of these women and had a sexual liaison with her, that would be something real that one could see the humanity in at least, but this is about overgrown adolescents terrified of adulthood. In an ominous way, Wiener has opened a window on the kind of buff-midriff, I'll-take-a-seltzer, put-in-time-in-the-gym, hi-tech, yakking-on-the-iPhone, virtual world in which the American fear of sexuality has landed for the duration. I posit a kind of sexual fear that makes it a heck of a lot easier to engage in electronic arousal than to meet an actual person. One wonders about Wiener's marriage. It's weird to say that, and perhaps it's a generational thing, but I find Spitzer and Edwards more understandable in that respect -- much as I fail to grasp Spitzer's deal entirely and despise Edwards for the potentially devastating risk he put the Party at (he might have been the VP nominee).

- ironyroad

June 20, 2011 at 4:29pm

Congressional Stats: 36 have been accused of spousal abuse 7 have been arrested for fraud 19 have been accused of writing bad checks 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses 3 have done time for assault 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges 8 have been arrested for shoplifting 21 currently are defendants in lawsuits 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year So when people say that Weiner shouldn't have resigned or should have resigned, put it into context compared to his fellow Congressmen and women. Weiner didn't do anything illegal when he sent those lewd images to those women. But his subsequent actions were disgraceful and a disservice to the office in which he was elected. So yes, he should have rightfully resigned and the Democratic leadership did the right thing for not spending political capital defending him. Let him resign and then run for re-election. Hell if the conservatives of LA will re-elect Vitter, who actually committed a crime by soliciting prostitutes, then Weiner has every right to try and be re-elected if he chose. I find the guy a blow-hard. About the only thing he is good for is acting as a counter-weight against FOX news interviews and being the Ann Coulter of the left.

- singlspeed

June 21, 2011 at 7:13pm