It’s a big disappointment. A grown, U.S. Representative ‘sexting’ for amusement. Here’s what I think:
At least he didn’t drag his wife into the press conference with him, making her do the usual Tammy Wynette ‘good wife‘ routine like so many other politicians.
He apologized for lying. He apologized to everyone, including *choke* Breitbart. Doesn’t mean I still won’t doubt the next “big” thing Andy B. puts before our hungry, broken media though. A broken clock is only right twice a day. And while we’re on the subject: does anyone recall Breitbart’s public apology to Shirley Sherrod? Right. No. Because unlike Weiner, Breitbart didn’t apologize when he was wrong.
As Ezra Klein said, Weiner was a good congressman last month and he still is this month. Weiner said his regrets go primarily to his wife. He said they aren’t getting a divorce — and “we will weather this.” He indicated they still love each other, and now it becomes a private matter between them and their families. This ridiculous situation he put himself into has nothing to do with his job.
We can certainly reminisce about Vitter’s “thing” for prostitutes and diapers or Craig tapping for action in the men’s restrooms at airports. Vitter was one of those ‘Christian family values’ politicians – you know the kind: holier than thou. Craig was anti-gay rights publicly just not so much in private. It’s that kind of hypocrisy that makes people scream — Republicans who want to control everyone else’s private lives with their religion and “morals,” whose own private lives include shit like wearing diapers, prostitutes and same-sex blow jobs in airport restrooms.
Bob Cesca pointed out that if Weiner had been introducing bills against online flirting, then this situation would be almost as bad as a Republican sex scandal. And he’s right. Almost but not quite.
Finally: Yes, Weiner lied. That’s the worst thing for us, looking in from the outside. But he manned-up and publicly apologized for lying and took credit for the dumb things he did.
Just for a second, compare Weiner’s lie to the lies that the Bush Administration fed the media and the American public for months about WMDs in Iraq. Those lies started a war, those lies have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents and the lives and sanity of thousands of our troops, and those lies helped put our country over the edge economically. It a way, their lies have touched all of us personally in one way or another.
Did Bush or Cheney ever offer an apology to the people they lied to — will they ever? Better yet, would their base ever ask for an apology from them?
The answer to all those questions is no. That’s why I can’t get too worked up about Weiner’s situation. It was all so dumb and he’s making his amends. Moving on.