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Rules of the game

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No more Weiner for the rest of the day, but this is a good point, from Atrios:

One thing I think Glenn misses is that the “not even a thin justification necessary” rules for journalistic voyeurism will be selectively applied. When a Villager In Good Standing has a tabloidish “scandal,” we’ll hear endless handwringing about those awful bloggers are prying into somebody’s personal business.

Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently, not that I have any sympathy for Weiner.

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    JGabriel

    DougJ @ Top:

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently …

    Considering the likely gender of the hypothetical recipient in Graham’s case, I imagine the GOP base would be more outraged than anyone else.

    .

  2. 2.

    ornery

    Don’t be afraid, Dougie … you don’t have to keep rhetorically throwing Weiner under the bus just because you are afraid of the Right-wing.

    Not that I have any sympathy for it.

  4. 4.

    13th Generation

    IOKIYAAR is so deeply rooted, it’s just never going to be any different. I’ve told you this before, Doug.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham

    I thew up a little just thinking about that. But oh, would that be fun if it did happen. Especially if it involved pr0n stars or 18 year olds.

  6. 6.

    SteveinSC

    I haven’t had a chance to join in on Weiner, but just to throw in my two cents, he should in no way resign and he should keep hammering. Lincoln was asked once why he kept Ulysses S. Grant, since he had not beaten Lee. Answer, “He fights.” Fuck the panty sniffers, most particularly Tweety.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    Anyone tempted to take a picture and sell it to Breitbart saying it was weiner’s penis? I heard he is paying big bucks.

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m sure someone with a better memory and/or better google skills could find it, but George Will got quite stroppy when someone pointed out his serial adultery (more than one woman wanted to ride that stallion! including his boss’s daughter) during the Time of the Clenis. Something along the lines of “My personal life is private. Got it?” It was pretty comical. “I’ll remind you, you impudent scalawag, that I was middle-weight champion of the Boxing Club of the Philosophers Society at Princeton in 1956”

    I suspect Lindsey’s crotch pics are sent to John McCain at about 3:00 am after a couple of jugs of Lancer’s rosé. But Johnny Mac doesn’t know how to open them, so Megan and Cindy just delete them quietly.

  10. 10.

    Linda Featheringill

    @SteveinSC:

    Answer, “He fights.”

    Quite appropriate.

    I think he should stay where he is. I think he should continue to fight for what he believes in. I think he should never volunteer to slink away.

    Of course, perhaps he should STFU for a little bit.

  11. 11.

    Dave

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently, not that I have any sympathy for Weiner.

    Well, for one thing they are likely much less…imposing.

  13. 13.

    Tonybrown74

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham …

    Wwwwrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttccccccccccccchhhh!!!!!

    Thanks, Doug! I just puked all over my keyboard!

  14. 14.

    cat48

    Reportedly, Andrew Breitbart is furious about the hijacking of his so-called “insurance” picture from Anthony Weiner’s curious notion of constituent, er, outreach. Breitbart told Fox News that he considers radio jock Gregg Hughes’ actions “a complete violation of trust,” but the damage has been done. Hughes, who goes by the nom de plume “Opie” on the air, surreptitiously took a picture of Breitbart’s cell phone while a picture showing a fully erect male penis was displayed — and then published it.
    from: ed, Hot Air

    At Gawker, the Naked Weiner phone photo has arrived, per my Google Reader. At least someone was sleazier & tricked Breitbart!

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @SteveinSC:

    I haven’t had a chance to join in on Weiner, but just to throw in my two cents, he should in no way resign and he should keep hammering. Lincoln was asked once why he kept Ulysses S. Grant, since he had not beaten Lee. Answer, “He fights.

    Well, he didn’t fight on this issue. First he lied for a week, then made the “tearful confession” and what’s he doing now? I don’t see a lot of “fighting” going on. He didn’t tell the reporters to back the eff off, that his personal life is personal. Or whatever. What, exactly, is he doing to show he fights?

  16. 16.

    PhoenixRising

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently …

    Well, for aesthetic reasons if nothing else, yes, yes they would be.

    Keeping in mind that none of them is in my personal target market: I’m considering putting my hat in the ring to replace this guy. My only campaign slogan: I want a job where I can work out as much as these members obviously do!

    Apparently we’re paying Congress to go to a very, very nice gym, and they have plenty of hours in which to use all the equipment. I see guys every day at the gym who I’ve worked out near for literally YEARS who can’t stay long enough to build those pecs.

  18. 18.

    Lolis

    @Violet:

    Yep, Weiner has handled this horribly. That is part of why it has become a huge mess.

    I do think raunchy picks from Lindsey Graham would be a BFD in the media. Especially if he kept going on TV all the damn time about it.

  19. 19.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently

    As an emetic, I would think.

  20. 20.

    sixers

    Crotch tweets from George Will or Lindsey Graham would be treated quite differently, not that I have any sympathy for Weiner.

    Uhh no. Red meat is red meat. To pretend that a congressman or any person in the public eye sending out dick pics should just be ignored and called a personal isssue when he accidently posts them in a public place is lunacy. He put those pictures out in public. This is what happens when you make that mistake.

  21. 21.

    Hill Dweller

    There was radio silence on the Ensign scandal for months, despite his actions being far worse than anything Weiner has done.

    Coburn, who was implicated in the Ensign scandal, has also avoided any real scrutiny.

    Hell, throw in the entire C Street/The Family brigade, which seems to be comprised of nothing but adulterers. No one but Maddow has dedicated any time to that craziness.

  22. 22.

    eemom

    it was back in the days when tweet was something birds did, but George Asshole Will does indeed have a weenie scandal on record. Something about his wife throwing all his shit out on the lawn after he took up with some woman at Kaplan HQ.

  24. 24.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    It’s not throwing Weiner under the bus to say he was devastatingly stupid in his handling of the whole matter.

    However, for me, the real issue is one that Rachel brought up last night: that the reaction to this feeds perfectly into everyone’s favorite double-standard: IOKIYAR. Eric Cantor demands Weiner’s immediate resignation, however David Vitter pays no consequence because ‘the voters have spoken and reelected him’. All Democrats have to return money from Weiner because it’s tainted, but no similar declarations made for those who had money raised for them by Ensign.

    Oh, and just to compound on the crap bubbling up from this, everyone’s favorite True Arbiter of Truth, Breitbart, had his secret photos of Weiner exposed after Opie and Anthony secretly snapped shots of them and released them, while Breitbart had brought them to show the two over their radio show. And Breitbart is simply APPALLED at the breach of security and trust.

    This is the man Weiner helped legitimize again. Nice job, schmuck.

  25. 25.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @efgoldman:

    Don’t forget, Ensign resigned two years after the breaking of his scandal, and only because it looked like he was going to have to testify and was very well going to be expelled from Congress.

    Quite a bit different from the immediate demands of resignation of Weiner for things that didn’t even amount to criminal activity, unlike Ensign’s case.

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Of course, with the prevalence of cameras in phones and the ease of uploading pictures, within the next 20 years there will be no one running for office anywhere who does not have photos of an “unfortunate nature” out there on the web. Society is going to have to learn to deal with it. Look at the scandal involving Clinton and pot. He faced it down, and now the public has more of less come to accept the fact that college students experiment with drugs.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Atrios makes a very good point here.

    If a known sack of sexual shit, like George Will, who was tossed out of his home by his wife for fucking around on her with the nanny, is caught tweeting pictures of his junk to 20 somethings, the Village gives their own an absolutely free pass on this sort of shit. They protect their own on this ever time while they tut-tut about guys like Weiner..and they would indeed be just appalled that those DFH bloggers have the nerve to point out just what hypocrites they are.

    Which is why I have absolutely zero problem with shoving all of these assholes onto tumbrels and enjoying every minute of SPaT’s color commentary while knitting at the Place de la Concorde while they all get their very well deserved desserts.

  28. 28.

    sixers

    @efgoldman:

    Both stories weren’t ignored. Ensign is out and Vitter has no shame but they weren’t ignored. Don’t blame the lame stream media for the people of Louisiana not liking democrats. This is all sour grapes because your boy Anthony let you down and you can’t come to terms with it. He fucked up. Not the media.

    Heres the part of IOKIYAR that I don’t understand. All of it. I don’t think we frequent the same places online so I feel so left out on this.

  30. 30.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    How is the Village any different in playing favorites then the blogosphere?

    If Weiner was some unknown congress critter from Illinois would Dailykos have spent 10 days rallying behind him — no. I mean, nobody lifted a keystroke to rally behind Charlie Rangel. And why – because he wasn’t a fan favorite.

  32. 32.

    boss bitch

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    How is the Village any different in playing favorites then the blogosphere?

    If Weiner was some unknown congress critter from Illinois would Dailykos have spent 10 days rallying behind him—no. I mean, nobody lifted a keystroke to rally behind Charlie Rangel. And why – because he wasn’t a fan favorite.

    yep.

  33. 33.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    If a known sack of sexual shit, like George Will, who was tossed out of his home by his wife for fucking around on her with the nanny, is caught tweeting pictures of his junk to 20 somethings, the Village gives their own an absolutely free pass on this sort of shit

    This sorta actually happened.

    In the care free 80s, Will had an affair with the boss’s daughter and got kicked out by his wife.

    Will was banging Katherine Graham’s daughter, Lally Weymouth. Will worked for WaPo and Newsweek, both owned at the time by Graham.

    When Will’s wife found out she literally threw his clothes out on their lawn and locked him out.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    Ah, didn’t know it was the boss’s daughter, I had heard it was the nanny.

    I stand corrected.

    Bottom line, Will got caught doing something a degree of magnitude more serious than dick pics, and naturally the Village overlooked it.

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    @JGabriel: Actually a lot of people would be interested in finding out who exactly Graham was tweeting. I might even favor some sexy time political talk on the TV about it. Diapers and crotch shots, not so much.

  37. 37.

    Suffern ACE

    @efgoldman: Nope. If there is a lucky part for Weiner is that the “scandal” didn’t go on long enough to cross the territory into “using campaign donations to cover it up and lying to investigators about it”.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @Southern Beale:
    If his wife didn’t know about his internet/Twitter relationships and sexting, I feel so bad for her. Maybe they have a kind of open relationship. I kind of hope so because this whole thing is embarrassing and awful and bringing a kid into the middle of it right now is just terrible. Having a kid is hard enough on good, strong marriages. One that has just been rocked by this kind of stuff, and where one spouse may very well lose their job over it, well, that’s just bad all the way around.

  43. 43.

    ChrisNYC

    You all really are over the edge. As tho Weiner is some renegade outsider! Protege of Schumer and married by Bill Clinton (complete with lavish and fawning coverage in both the NYT and Vogue). Sheesh.

  46. 46.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    @ChrisNYC: I know, what a laugh. I mean after all, like all Villagers, Weiner is an AIPAC stooge and cheer led the rape and plundering of Iraq.

  49. 49.

    boss bitch

    @Corner Stone:

    bitch, did you rally behind Rep Rangel?

    no I did not. I thought he had it coming. I think Weiner had it coming. I think they all had it coming. I believe Mike Kay was pointing out hypocrisy and cliquishness and I agreed with him. so?

  50. 50.

    boss bitch

    Awwww:

    Anthony Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin is pregnant, The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro and Ashley Parker report. Abedin, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is in the early months of her pregnancy, three people have told the Times. The couple married last year.

    Oh….

    Update: Gawker also reports Abedin is pregnant. And the news comes as the Las Vegas Sun’s Karoun Demirjian has found a fifth woman with whom Weiner has been in contact online. This woman, however, did not seek the tabloid spotlight. Traci Nobles, of Athens, Georgia, left her Facebook page open by accident, and her roommate emailed the newspaper a screenshot of a conversation Nobles had with Weiner. The image shows Weiner and Nobles calling each other pet names like “sexy” and “sugar.” Nobles told the Sun, “I really regret that this was sent to you.”

    Sure Traci, sure.

    Looks like Weiner learned nothing from Tiger Woods.

  52. 52.

    OzoneR

    @Violet:

    What, exactly, is he doing to show he fights?

    Bashing President Obama to the Israeli Prime Minister while the President is overseas for supporting a policy he doesn’t actually support.

  54. 54.

    ChrisNYC

    @efgoldman: Exactly right — except none of those things were alleged about Rangel. The only “possibly criminal” thing he did was allegedly use the House franking machine to put postage on solicitations for donations to his non-profit. No allegation of personal benefit or screwing around with campaign funds. That was his prime (and provable) defense.

  55. 55.

    CynDee

    we’ll hear endless handwringing about those awful bloggers are prying into somebody’s personal business.

    I’m sorry; your business isn’t personal and you aren’t grown up if you display yourself sexually on the internet.

    I would have a hard time accepting someone as my congressperson who has the infantile inner need to “show off” or act out in this way. In positions of public trust involved in critical decisions of far-reaching consequences, I want a person who is in possession of a mature personality and uses good judgment. W. should be OUT of his position.

  56. 56.

    Suffern ACE

    @boss bitch: I hope it is only 6 and I hope this is almost over. God, and it took them years to figure out that enhanced interrogation techniques might just be a euphemism for another more commonly used word.

  57. 57.

    A Humble Lurker

    Hey, did ya’ll see Rachel Maddow use IOKIYAR on her show last night? That’s at least one thing in this whole mess that got a smile out of me.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @A Humble Lurker: DId you see the look on Reince Preibus’s face when Martin Bashir brought up John Ensign? Reince looked like he’d been smacked in the face with an un-gutted halibut. Always a treat when a Villager runs into someone who hasn’t internalized the Broder code.

  59. 59.

    WATBaby Killer

    This is one reason why real journalists don’t take some bloggers seriously, even prominent drivel-pounders like Atrios. He looks at a story that has fuck-all to do with blogging and manages to make bloggers the victim, not bothering, of course, to cite a cunt-hair of evidence or give an example for this made-up atrocity. I think some call that whiny ass titty baby talk. Doug completes the circle jerk by declaring the idiocy a “good point.” Heckuva job, boys.

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