Weiner: Yep, I did it
Well, I guess Weiner’s confession calls for some commentary on my part. So let me just say that:
—I still think the original offense[s] itself, although exceedingly smarmy, is a matter between Weiner and his wife (that is, assuming all of the women involved were consenting adults).
—Weiner’s denial was worse than his original offense[s]. As usual, it’s the coverup, stupid. And Weiner was very stupid indeed to not think this was going to come out eventually.
I feel bad for his wife, not even married a year! However, I have a feeling that Weiner may not even lose his seat, if no crimes are found to have been committed.
I also think that if, when this first hit the news, Weiner had confessed immediately, he would have defused much of the ruckus. Some statement to the tune of, “Yes, it was me, I was drunk when I sent it, I’m a sex addict, I’m going into treatment, I apologize to my wife and family whom I’ve hurt so badly, I will spend the rest of my life making this up to them, yada yada yada…” would have gone far. Yes, the right would have trashed him, but the whole thing would have remained in the realm of a guy thinking with the little head.
That is, unless there are worse acts in his past, things that would be even more important to cover up.
One thing that seems pretty clear is that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Here’s Weiner’s Wiki entry:
In July 2008, The New York Times printed a front page story on Weiner’s demanding treatment of his staffers. The piece reported that Weiner frequently resorted to verbally abusing his staffers when he believed they had failed to perform their duties adequately, in addition to physically abusing his office furniture when upset. As a result of Weiner’s demanding and intense nature, the Times reported that a “sizable number” of his staff members had resigned following “abbreviated stints.” According to Congressional data at the time, Weiner had “presided over more turnover than any other member of the New York House delegation in the last six years.” Additionally, at the time of the report, about half of Weiner’s staff had been his employee for less than a year and since early 2007, he had gone through three chiefs of staff.
Weiner was an accident waiting to happen. He’s been getting away with really lousy behavior for years, and not just in the sexual sphere. As I wrote about Strauss-Kahn before him, it seems as though the guy “has been spinning out of control for quite some time, and has only been emboldened (as perps often are) by the fact that he’s been getting away with it.”
[ADDENDUM: It occurs to me that, if Weiner had been a fat slob (not that there’s anything wrong with that), he might not be in this particular trouble today, because he wouldn’t have been quite as irresistibly tempted to send photos of his body to young women he barely knew. Pride goeth before a fall.
I didn’t watch the press conference, but Ed Driscoll points out a conspicuous absence: Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin. Perhaps her former boss Hillary Clinton, who sort of knows how it feels, is consoling her.]
[ADDENDUM II: Ann Althouse discovers that CNN is not the go-to station for this story.]
[ADDENDUM III: It will be an interesting parlor game to see how those who reviled Andrew Breitbart for leading this story (and even accused him of being the hacker) will deal with the revelation that he was right all along. Weiner himself offered Breitbart a tepid apology. But Charles Johnson isn’t eating any crow.]
This post is related to the Palin post because if there is someone who is a plotter, it is Breitbart. Hurray for Breitbart!
Finally, the media hegemony is cracking. It will continue. The question is, will there be enough “cracking” to preserve the Republic?
The original offense was small, but still noteworthy, as it goes to judgment. Something that we would kinda like to have in public officials.
Huma Abedin is an extraordinarily beautiful woman with a terrific, sophisticated background.
She married Weiner? Now, I know there it’s not nice to comment on the looks of others or others’ spouses, nor to wonder why.
But a weasly congresscritter with a future in corrupt politics?
I would like to see Weiner become the Democratic spokesman for Obamacare.
Richard: The word I got from my friends in DC is that Huma is by nature a team member (positive slant) or a follower, brilliant but a publicity-spooked follower (not-so-positive slant.) She has done very well with the Clinton gang and marriage to Weiner was right along that path.
Now Hillary will help her decide to stay or go, depending on how Weiner’s career trajectory looks in upcoming months. And truly Huma is beautiful and accomplished; if her first hubby has to be washed down the memory hole along with all his tacky tweets, there are lots more on the leftist bench.
As satisfying, Weiner was leading the charge against Justice Thomas.
Imagine the chain of events where Kagan is forced to recuse herself from an Obamacare decision and Thomas is not mainly because the ball was dropped by Weiner due to sexual misconduct. Then a tie vote, at least, would happen and Judge Vinson’s ruling would be upheld.
I don’t think it’s just between he and his wife. People can, and have been blackmailed to give up sensitive information by foreign countries because of this type of thing. So aside from being a sleaze, he’s a potential security risk.
You are tooo quick, Neo. It has now been credibly reported he has a recurrent pattern of this sort of, umm, distasteful conduct. The real point is why serial no-goods should hold high elected office; if their conduct and judgment is rotten in one area we should have confidence in others? I come back to the “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” of my earlier comments.
I’ve known several Weineroids. They seem to have been born that way: smart, but sleazy, ingratiating to power, nerdy-looking, athletically crappy, but overtly fancying themselves very masculine; and in no way manly.
The Huma-Weiner marriage struck me at the get-go as a political-only union. A muslim marries a Jew, ain’t it wonderful? No, it’s not. Kinda like Carville and his wife Matalin. In both cases, the men are sleazoids.
In a previous thread I mentioned the fact that many men are actually small boys posing as adults. This seems to be the case here. If he weren’t enabled by the dems who will support him, he should resign and begin the process of growing up. Admitting need to examine some of your issues with an eye to changing and becoming a better human is not weakness. It is the beginning of healthy maturation. Sadly, this won’t happen here.
What’s worse is that many dems who should have resigned or been prosecuted are still going their merry, dysfunctional ways. Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, and William J. Clinton to mention a few.
Yes, any government official who has shameful or illegal activities to hide is a potential security risk as well.
Don Carlos: I’m too quick to what?
It wouldn’t surprise me if there were hundreds of women; that’s why I said I assume he’s been doing this for a long, long, time and getting away with it. And if any of them are underage, or were subjected to work harassment, that would change things (as I’ve said in several posts).
Those who mention a possible security risk through blackmail are making a good point, one I hadn’t thought of earlier. Maybe I didn’t think of it because shame isn’t what it used to be.
Curtis
Weiner was elected to Congress in November 1998.
Clarence Thomas became Supreme Court Justice in 1991.
Does. not. compute.
Neo
There is an additional angle to your observation. Weiner was a jock- a hockey player in college. There is a certain amount of intensity that goes along with keeping yourself in good physical condition 25 years after graduating from college. Had he been a fat slob, this most likely would have indicated that he was a less intense person, and would have retained more staff instead of burning them out. As he put a lot of pressure on himself to keep in good physical condition, he put a lot of pressure on his staff.
I agree that had he simply ‘fessed up and gone into the “ I was drunk…sex addict…treatment” mode, he would have had a lot fewer problems. What he did was juvenile, but not criminal.
Did he take anyone’s advice before he initially responded? Hillary would probably have given him good advice, but to get him to advise him he would have had to admit this to his wife, which he might not have been willing to do.
Can we just say “malignant narcissism”? The man simply can’t behave. Short of real crime, he allowed himself every boorish stunt imaginable.
As an aside, I must point out that Charles Johnson’s entire life is one steaming pile of crow baked in a rock-hard crust of lies.
Gringo
The Democrats are trying to force Justice Thomas to recuse himself from the Obamacare issue, alleging his wife’s lobbying activities constitutes conflict of interest. Weiner has been strident about this.
Breitbart’s Big Government site has a link to a video that’s pretty amazing: ABC posted “Weiner’s Web of Lies,” which is a replay of a 5-minute sit-down with one of their reporters last week.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/flashback-weiners-web-lies-13776485
Watch the body language, the tone of voice, the hectoring manner, the arrogance, the continual interruptions: and watch the reporter sit well back in his chair with actual amazement on his face that the guy is being such a pr**k on camera. It’s exactly like a bullying boss reading the riot act to an unruly employee behind closed doors.
I think he’s a narcissist. No shame, just anger at being made to stop playing — for a while. You can bet he’ll be at it again asap, like a drunk to the bottle. And will be just as defiant: “consenting adults! I was just having my jollies, not hurting anyone! besides, a man in my position is entitled to these perks of power!”
Leona Helmsley: “Taxes? they’re for the little people.”
I also saw his Contrition Theater press conference video. I watched all 15 mins. of it. [See BigGovernment.com for a link.]
Fascinating. He rather quickly got used to repeating his confession, then got an edge of irritation [I’ve already apologized repeatedly, people, can’t you shut up?], then even seemed almost comfortable with it all by the time it was over. Language: almost entirely “it was dumb,” an “error in judgement,” etc. The usual morals-free “apology.” He did use the word “dishonorable” once, that was the only moment I noticed him suggesting it was morally wrong, and I’ll bet you dollars to donuts his media handlers told him to say that.
I call BS on the crying, too. He’s a high-strung guy, and I bet he used to cry when his momma caught him doing things. And got right off the hook.
I also bet his wife gives him the heave-ho. It’s obvious he went through a whole “oh, honey, i used to do all this stuff, but now that I’ve met you, I’ll never do it again” song and dance, and apparently, they haven’t even been married two years, and he hasn’t even bothered to control himself.
I also bet that this is at the “Tiger Woods’s 10 Mistresses” stage. No way he’s only been doing this three years, with just six women. Like Ace said, “dude, you had this with two women just in May!”
Finally: the “press” as usual let him off without asking the real questions. 1. If you’re so “stupid,” why are you in power? 2. If you have such “terrible judgement,” why are you in power? 3. If you lie with such ease, how can we trust you on anything else? 4. Do you really expect a roomful of adults to believe you just started doing this at age 41? 5. What was your statement on your Repub. colleague Chris Lee, caught sending just one shirtless picture to a woman on Facebook, who was called on to resign? 6. Why should he resign, and not you? when you’ve been sending the Full Monty to numerous strangers?
–That’s something all the conservative bloggers should do: pull up the file on Lee and COMPARE the media and Congress’s treatment of the two men. Lee quit immediately, didn’t (as far as we know) make a habit of this, and sure didn’t send pix of his tally whacker in a state of arousal to entire strangers.
Do watch the video on Big Government (they have the full-length one). Any student of human nature will find it … interesting. And it’s a parade of character flaws that, I argue, are grounds for him to quit immediately.
His constituents in Queens (MITS interviews on TV tonight) were seriously fed up with him, especially the women. Of every race and background.
JTR: thanks for the update. Looks like I hadn’t been paying as much attention as you and Curtis.
My favorite comment about Weinergate is from Rush Limbaugh, when he stated on his radio show that perhaps the worst way for any man to impress a woman is to send her pictures of his privates. Ain’t it the truth.
Beverly, thanks for the ABC News clip. Weiner’s combative style and despicable lying are all too reminiscent of other tough big city machine politicians. Shades of Spitzer, Schumer, Rangle, Barney Frank, and dare I say even Andrew Cuomo immediately come to mind. Lawyers all, they are career politicians that give “public service” a bad name. Their attitudes and tactics reveal their venal nature and unsuitability as trustable elected officials. Personal agenda’s come first, and their goals justify their means. I’m sure that everyone has their own personal list of members of this club of undesirables.
raincityjazz
Okay. Abedin is mobbed up with the Hillary crowd. I guess my larger point is that she can move out of that bunch.
Hell, there has to be a guy who owns a couple of dozen dry cleaners and a three thousand square foot vacation place near Charlevoix (MI) and with no sweaty, nasty habits and no connection with the lefty crowd. Not bad looking. Cheerful and pleasant and polite to everybody.
Superficially, she can go anywhere. What’s keeping her in this bunch? Ideology? They have no ideology. Power? Others may get it, but the women have to be married to it. Which means picking from a bunch of rotten apples, at best.
Why?
Less than one year ago, the man took a oath to be faithful to his wife, presided over by a serial philanderer.
Every statment he has uttered in public/private life should be treated with doubt. In my mind a person who cheats on their spouse is capable of almost anything. (Cheating can be without physical contact.)
if Weiner had been a fat slob….
Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac
Kissenger as quoted in The New York Times (28 October 1973)
Another good one: Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.
and truncating this explains our situtaion:
the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win.
the activist wins if he does not lose
the conventional people lose if they do not win…
and one last one concerning wiener
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
The apology was quite well delivered, and appeared believable. Then I watched this ABC interview:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/flashback-weiners-web-lies-13776485
Watching this makes it extremely difficult to believe anything Weiner has to say. The man clearly lies, and lies well, and has confidence in his ability to persuade the gullible (I notice he is a favourite of Rachel Maddow). While he may have some genuine emotion in there because he is feeling humiliated, and has been caught out, it is feeling sorry for himself, not contrition.
The feeling I have is the only thing he feels sorry about is that the Democratic leadership have slapped him into line and not let him tough it out.
This must have seemed like a great setup, one that killed a number of birds with one stone.
Hillary’s very (rumored, very, very) close companion of several years–and a Muslim to boot–marries a combative, far Left Jewish congressman who is a close political ally–a rising star–and a point man for Democrats in Congress.
Hillary and Huma get a beard. Weiner can continue to pursue women. Weiner advances his career, and the Clinton-Weiner alliance is strengthened. Moreover, they create an example they can continually point to of Muslim-Jewish harmony; see, Muslims aren’t that bad, and all that stuff about them wanting to kill or enslave all unbelievers and take over the world is just bullshit.
But, Weiner couldn’t keep his weiner down, and his rampant weiner busted up what could have been such a winning gambit.
Well, damn, Wolla.
Abedin can still do better than Hillary. Tammy Bruce or Ellen deGeneres come to mind.
From which I deduce that, if you’re right, it’s about power and connection.
Unhappy thought: If Abedin strays from the Beltway mob for somebody on either team, and things go so badly that only the Beltway mob know where their next meal is coming from, my example of the prosperous private enterpreneur might not look so good in prospect.
While it would be nice if we didn’t have to learn so much about such personal matters about our politicians (really, I could have lived without seeing the twitter pics), these sleazy activities almost always spill over into their public lives. I would not be surprised to learn that he was using his office to support this habit.
And once again we learn that character counts. They try to tell us that this behavior has nothing to do with their jobs, but again and again, we see these men who are so adamant about wielding the power of the state to run our lives while they have so little self control of their own. And worse, they feel that rules and decent behavior are for the little people.
Weiner was an especially vocal and aggressive advocate for ObamaCare, and also attempted to drum Glenn Beck off the air by hounding his gold-selling advertisers. Why should he have the privilege of determining how we run our lives, and what media we have access to, when he so clearly cannot run his own life?
When elementary students learn what a Lewinsky means and that so called leaders twitter their weiners the rot at the head of the fish has spread all the way down to the tail. Is it any wonder that is now routine to find 11 and 12 years sending cellphone pics of their privates?
“–Weiner’s denial was worse than his original offense[s]. As usual, it’s the coverup, stupid. ” neo
“3. If you lie with such ease, how can we trust you on anything else?” Beverly
“shame isn’t what it used to be.” neo
This is the real heart of the matter, it’s the public’s’ tolerance and moral obtuseness regarding Weiner’s (and any other politician caught lying to the public) true offence wherein the problem lies.
Nixon was forced to resign because he was caught lying about his involvement in the Watergate cover-up. Clinton’s blatantly direct lying about the Monica Lewinsky affair was the watershed moment when the majority of Americans, through their moral indifference, revealed their lack of understanding of the true importance of character in leadership.
As a nation, we have exactly the leadership we deserve because it directly reflects the overall moral state of the nation.
Hopefully, GB, if the tea party can clean up the Republican side, well, as Mary Poppin says, “Well begun is half done.”
(Michael replies, “I don’t like the sound of that.”)
Artfldgr: Kissinger did famously say that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. I can’t find the quote in context, but I believe that he may have been referring in the main to women regarding men–men don’t tend to have the same positive reaction to powerful women (although of course some do). But to a larger percentage of women (not all, I might add), power in a male can make up for other shortcomings.
However, I would say that the powers of power as an aphrodisiac do not usually extend to strangers receiving nude photos of the powerful male in question, if he’s not in fighting trim. In other words, I doubt that even Kissinger sent nude photos of himself to his girlfriends. He relied on his charm and his power to arouse them, rather than his body.
Clearly, Weiner was proud not only of his power, but of his body, and he wanted to show it off.
As more light was shed on Weiner, the more he exposed his pride and true moral nature.
There is a scene from Le Pé¨re Goriot when Vautrin is exposed and captured. It superbly shows what type of animal man is when he has lost all restraint and respect for law.
Obama is such a person. He can be trapped just like Weiner was, just like Vautrin, and the real pride, the outrage at being resisted will manifest.
The person most likely to do it is Sarah Palin because her basic humility reminds Obama and the left of their fear that their pride of self and hatred of law means sure and well-deserved punishment. When I see Weiner in his revelations of his inner self, I think of that statement, “knashing of teeth.”
You might have noticed the almost immediate, seemingly surprising call by House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi for an Ethics Committee investigation of Cong. Weiner’s activities.
Although I am sure it will be spun that way, this is not a call for an objective investigation of the facts, laws, and regulations involved, nor a stand Pilosi is taking for reform, for higher ethical standards, the taking of personal responsibility, punishment of the guilty, and good government but it is, rather, an attempt to salvage Cong. Weiner’s career.
The high sounding Ethics Committee–composed of fellow Congressmen, all members of a very exclusive club who presumably also have their own closets full of skeletons–rarely ever finds members of Congress guilty of ethics violations sufficient to warrant their expulsion, and this Ethics Committee is a good place to bury the allegations and conduct and to prolong the “investigation” for so long that there is a good chance that the initial fury will die down, and that the public will lose interest in and, in essence, forget the case entirely.
Thus, we have the poster boy for Congressional corruption–the famously oily, corrupt, and arrogant Rep. Charlie Rangel, whose multitude of financial machinations, lawbreaking, lapses in memory, “mistakes,” and shady business deals earned him, not prosecution, or expulsion, but eventually–after many months of secret investigations by the Committee–merely censure. Combative Far Left Congresswoman Maxine Waters in now being investigated herself for all sorts of financial shenanigans, but after two years of “investigation” no final judgment is in sight.
Look for more calls by Democrats for Weiner be “investigated,” and that “pending the results of this investigation,” he no longer answer questions from the press, and that, also pending the findings of the Committee, Weiner be allowed he keep his seat, so that he can continue to “do the public’s business.”
I agree with Beverly in that, if Lee had to step down, so should Weiner. No double-standards. Oh heck, what am I saying?
There is a double standard. It is so perfectly clear that only a person deep in denial could not see it.
Republicans resign when caught in unethical activities. Democrats do not. It might as well be an actual law because that is what happens over and over. The MSM has been outed as being a branch of the democrat party, but they keep on claiming objectivity. How much longer will we the people, who are supposed to have the power, allow this charade to continue?
I will say this. Whoever gets the Republican nomination for President should engage Andrew Breitbart to run his media response team. Breitbart is an honest man and a bull-dog competitor. Just what we need to counter the dishonest MSM.
Good observation Wolla Dalbo. I was somewhat puzzled by Pelosi’s call for an investigation but your take explains it. On the other hand, what a bunch of cowards our Republicans are.
A humorous take from Fred Thompson. “Isn’t the quality of our political scandals falling? With Nixon and Watergate it was what did the President know and when did he know it? Now we’ve got, what did the Congressman show and when did he show it?” We have to laugh at this stuff. Otherwise it’s too depressing.
Check Zombie’s post on the “Liberal Defense” of sexually gross behavior: He’s not guilty, really, because he’s NOT a HYPOCRITE.
Zombie says there’s an unstated, fatal premise to their argument: that Democrats have no moral code to violate.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3nwbvfr