Nobody covered this yesterday, so here’s Anthony Weiner’s announcement video. I might be in the minority but leading immediately with the family was a little creepy–if you have to announce at midnight so the tabloids won’t make a Weiner joke, maybe you shouldn’t use your new baby as a campaign prop. Plus, the whole interaction has a very stilted, nanny’s-day-off feel. The rest is stock campaign ad.
Weiner is In
by $8 blue check mistermix| 145 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
raven
Dude is going through the motions doing what he has to do.
Joseph Nobles
Laying it all on the table.
Poopyman
Really? “Weiner’s In”? I’d be disappointed in you, MM, if I could think of a sufficiently clever alternative.
max
What Raven said.
max
[‘I’m rooting for him, or rather, I’m rooting against Bloomberg.’]
HinTN
Lucky for Tony that I don’t live in NYC. I have a lot more forgiveness for Spitzer’s transgression than his. It’s the lying that gets me, not the sex.
Shortstop
@Poopyman: no one can resist. HuffPo used the same head.
Linda Featheringill
Lovely child, btw.
Weiner for mayor? Dunno. New Yorkers frequently surprise me.
And how would I know how people act when the nanny has a day off?
raven
@max: Is Bloomberg running again?
Shortstop
@max: Bloomberg isn’t running.
Anya
Ugh! So far we don’t have any good choice. Both candidates are odious in their own way.
Shortstop
@Anya: I feel ya. –Love, a resident of Chicago.
Betty Cracker
Maybe it’s just me, but I think when a politician gets busted for tweeting pictures of his dick, he should slink off the public stage. Forever.
Shortstop
@Betty Cracker: They can’t get over themselves. They live in a very special universe in which what they want takes constant precedence over what they can/should have. He’ll never accept that it’s over.
El Caganer
@Betty Cracker: So you don’t think he has a chance of pulling it out against his opponents?
Harold Samson
@Betty Cracker:
I wish it were just you.
MomSense
What gets me about politicians like Weiner, it is that there is a really deep bench of good Democrats in most states. Once you have turned yourself into a zillion potty jokes, get out of the way and let the new talent step in.
raven
@Shortstop: Because it is not.
MikeJ
I didn’t care about Weiner’s dick before he started sending out pics of it and I don’t care about it now.
the Conster
That’s what she said.
chopper
first Dick Trickle dies, now this.
Shakezula
I’m sure he thought long and hard before he made the decision to head back into the political ring.
Just One More Canuck
Will the Republican beat Weiner?
beltane
Way back in ’90 or ’91, New York Magazine put a young Anthony Weiner on their list of 5 worst city council members. You’d think this would have been a career setback, but I guess it was just the first step on his journey to Gracie Mansion.
beltane
@Just One More Canuck: Handily.
Scott S.
He’s got a long, hard road ahead of him, but I think he’s just schwinging it. I don’t understand why he needs to keep exposing himself like this. I never sausage a thing.
Rosalita
or maybe he’s just trying to burn up the campaign money he has from his last run
Rosalita
@Shakezula:
i see what you did there… lol
esc
I don’t care about his dick or that he took pictures of it. I care that those pictures were sent to women who didn’t want to see them.
jeffreyw
Planned Parenthood is calling for a withdrawal.
jeffreyw
Alex DeLarge is hoping for the “old in and out”.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Betty Cracker: Eh.
1) Sometimes people do stupid stuff even if they are otherwise good. He’s just not allowed to have a phone or the internet while he’s grounded.
2) Considering that not a single Republican gets punished for stuff 100x worse than this, I’m tired of us handicapping ourselves for something that we keep saying is a private matter between him and his wife.
His lying is the worst part of it. If the voters don’t want him, they’ll let him know.
Shortstop
@Just One More Canuck: No, the Democrat will…in the primary.
Cacti
If New Yorkers want him, they can have him.
aimai
@Shortstop: I could not agree more. There is a level of entitlement–to power, to public adulation, to being center stage that most of us simply can’t imagine. What ever happened to either slinking off the public stage and burying oneself on a desert island or serving the poor until one’s crimes are forgotten? I was, oddly, personally offended to receive the email alert from Weiner’s campaign and I hit unsubscribe as well as responded directly “DIAF.”
Svensker
Speaking as a Torontonian, Wiener’s issues seem, er, small. But it he won, maybe Jon Stewart would focus on him instead of Mayor Cracky McCrack.
TR
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
What he said.
Eliot Spitzer fell on his sword for his sexual sins, and as a result when Wall Street went insane, the governor of New York wasn’t the guy who had roughed them up and could again; the governor of New York was an ineffectual punchline.
Meanwhile, Sen. David Vitter — guilty of the same sins, only worse — refused to resign and was re-elected to continue to do harm.
We keep taking our chess pieces off the table and then wonder out loud why we keep losing.
Betty Cracker
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’d agree that it’s just between him and his wife if he were Joe Schmoe, but he’s a public figure, and his stupidity cost the Dems a safe House seat. Weiner has displayed incredibly poor judgment, revealed himself to be a bald-faced liar and sullied by association with his own sleaze-ball self a number of important causes.
I’m not saying he shouldn’t be allowed to run, and I’d vote for him over a Republican. But maybe he should get the hell out of the way and let a Democrat who wasn’t dumb enough to tweet dick pictures to strangers have a shot.
El Caganer
I thought it was Winston Churchill who said “It will be long. It will be hard. There will be no withdrawal.” Perhaps I’m mistaken.
Emma
I am conflicted about this. I don’t like him or his behavior and, like many people here I wish he would just go away. On the other hand, I think this is why we Democrats lose so many battles. Republicans circle the wagons and get their assholes re-elected. We throw away good people in order to conform to Republican morals ( hello, Al Gore, you couldn’t do better for a vice-president?) and get hosed anyway.
MazeDancer
@esc:
Exactly. And that he lied. Repeatedly.
Mark Sandford’s victory must have encouraged Mr. Weiner.
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker:
Amen.
This is insane.
askew
@esc:
Yep, people keep ignoring that fact. He’s skeezy and there has to be better options for NYC Mayor.
Shortstop
@Svensker: I’m sorry, truly sorry, that y’all are suffering with that guy, but I cannot look away. It’s so horrifying and totally mesmerizing.
Patrick
@TR:
I couldn’t agree more. Whether it is Vitter, Sanford or whoever, the Republicans close rank and re-elect their own. The Dems do the opposite and then tend to lose.
beltane
@Betty Cracker: If it is any consolation, I would support another Dem over Weiner in the primary even if the dick pictures had never existed in the first place. There is, or should be, a very deep bench of Democrats in NYC, and I don’t see the value in circling the wagons around Weiner if he’s not yet the nominee.
TR
@askew:
He’s skeezy and there has to be better options for NYC Mayor.
You’d think so, but NYC is a city whose voting base is 68% registered Democrats and yet it hasn’t elected a Democratic mayor since 1990.
A quarter century of Republican mayors in a city that’s more than two-thirds registered Democrats.
Sort of says something about the bench of potential mayoral candidates on our side of the aisle, doesn’t it?
TR
@Patrick:
And then we wonder why there’s no party discipline when the tough votes come.
PurpleGirl
@Rosalita: Bingo. He has $5 million to spend. By law it can only be spent on campaigning expenses.
TR
@beltane:
There is, or should be, a very deep bench of Democrats in NYC, and I don’t see the value in circling the wagons around Weiner if he’s not yet the nominee.
Should be. But isn’t.
Shortstop
Look at this thread. Three or four people saying meh, he’s fine, and everyone else making dick jokes. And we’re liberals. The guy’s not going to get past the primary because he’s a buffoon. And if he didn’t have an ego the size of Staten Island, denial larger than Brooklyn and a sense of entitlement bigger than Manhattan, he’d know that and get out of the way.
Patrick
@TR:
Yup. Why have loyalty towards your party leadership if they won’t back you up when you need their help?
Cacti
Anthony Weiner couldn’t be arsed to take stand on whether Muslims had First Amendment rights in lower Manhattan.
He was decidedly less progressive on the First Amendment than Bloomberg, which must have been a bit embarrassing for guy who was known for his leftier-than-thou grandstanding.
Tweeting pictures of Anthony’s Weiner was just another instance of his narcissism.
beltane
@TR: It has nothing to do with the bench of potential candidates and everything to do with NYC’s tribal politics. It seems that one cannot become the Dem nominee without alienating one or more crucial blocks of voters, thus making the Republican candidate appear to be above the fray and relatively non-controversial.
askew
@TR:
Except Spitzer broke the law by engaging in prostitution. If it had been just other women, he could have stayed in office.
Mandalay
Weiner in his shitty 64 point plan:
Weiner to Mayor Bloomberg:
Weiner will say and do anything to get elected. There is no politician in either party more vile and disgusting.
TR
@askew:
So when David Vitter was revealed to be soliciting prostitutes in Washington and New Orleans, that wasn’t a crime because why?
Cacti
@askew:
Not just breaking the law, but crossing state lines to do it, while serving as the top law enforcement official in the state of New York.
That’s the sort of thing that would land someone of a lesser station in prison.
raven
@Shortstop: And some people are saying “who gives a flying fuck. it don’t mean nuthin”.
TR
@beltane:
Oh, sure.
But I’d say Wiener has a better shot of overcoming those tribal politics than Christine Quinn.
joes527
@HinTN:
Actually, it is the stupid that is the problem. No indication that anything has changed on that front.
TR
@Cacti:
Again, David Vitter did the exact same thing. Crossed state lines to engage in prostitution. And his scandal had the added sizzle of rumors that he asked to wear diapers in his sessions with the prostitutes.
Same crime, worse even. But he didn’t resign like Spitzer did. He stuck it out, and he’s still in office.
MomSense
@MomSense:
I should have said that Weiner should pull out and let someone else have a turn.
Y’all are cracking me up this morning.
Cacti
@TR:
So your point is that we should be more supportive of criminal behavior among Dem politicians?
Pass.
Cassidy
Fuck it. Go for it Anthony. Let it all hang out.
Shortstop
@raven: Duh, that was the first category I mentioned. If you can suddenly vote in NYC, you can help make up the 10 points he’s polling behind Quinn…or try to change the fact that way more New Yorkers think he shouldn’t run than believe he should…and that the “don’t runs” have increased significantly in the last month. I got numbers; you, as always, got nothing but blowharding.
Shortstop
@joes527: amen.
Xantar
@TR:
I think the difference is Democrats are less tribal about these things than Republicans are. William Jefferson was thrown out of office for being a corrupt sleazeball. Democratic voters might have thrown Spitzer out of office or at least crippled his influence (city council would probably have felt safe in ignoring him). If Spitzer had been a Republican governor in a red state, he would have stayed on and survived because the voters would still support “one of us.”
raven
@Shortstop: Go fuck yourself douchebag. I’m not saying he’s fine I’m saying it doesn’t mean shit whether he runs or not.
Mandalay
@Emma:
But Weiner is not a good person. He is a self-serving lying scumbag.
He is rabidly pro-Israel – more than anyone in Congress – and equally rabidly hostile to Palestinians. He voted for the Iraq War, and later claimed he was “outsmarted” by George Bush FFS. He thought he could get away with posting photos of his dick on-line, and lied massively when caught.
But even if you care nothing about his policy positions, or his dishonesty, as a politician he is totally lacking in judgment skills. He is simply unfit for public office because he is literally “not competent”. How many second chances do you give someone who obviously does not meet one of the most basic job requirements: prudent decision making?
Soonergrunt
Here’s hoping that Weiner stands tall and firm…and wins. So that I can post a diary saying “Weiner has risen again, and Andrew Breitbart is still dead.”
That prick Breitbart’s crowning achievement was the damage he did to Weiner.
I guess you could say that the prick is dead and Weiner lives right now, come to think of it.
Brandon
@askew: I for one don’t really understand how it is illegal to pay for it except when a video camera is rolling. Spitzer is an excellent attorney and should have been more aware of this legal technicality and just had a camera rolling, even if it was just the one on his phone.
Cassidy
The climax of this race will be glorious!
beltane
@Xantar: There is always the matter of the electorate. Perhaps the truth of the matter is that Republican voters are scumbags who like voting for other scumbags. Mark Sanford made his big move up in the polls only after it had been revealed that he repeatedly violated a restraining order. Why? Because a sizable segment of the electorate thinks this type of behavior is laudable.
On the other hand, if Chris Christie got caught with prostitutes I think he’d end up in the same situation as Spitzer because we in the Northeast don’t share the same type of “family values” as the godfearing Southern conservatives.
handsmile
As a New Yorker and politically active Democrat, I am disgusted by Wiener’s decision. For the Democratic primary, the race will now be reduced to Wiener and City Council speaker Christine Quinn, a once progressive politician who has become a Bloomberg lickspittle, a toady for the city’s real estate and finance tycoons.
The media donnybrook that will now ensue between Wiener and Quinn eliminates the prospects of two far better Democrats in the race, City Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. It will also advance the interests of the leading Republican candidate for mayor, Joe Lhota, a former stooge of Rudy 9/11, who will position himself as the dignified adult unblemished by distracting squabbles.
I am disgusted that Wiener, a pugnacious but ineffective Congressman, believes that he retains the moral authority to serve as a prominent public official after recently committing such profoundly stupid, cowardly and perhaps offensive, acts as an adult.
Here’s a question: if you were fired/forced to resign for behavior similar to that of Wiener, how likely is it that you would be able to obtain employment again in that line of work?
I must note, of course, that Republican Carl Paladino received nothing remotely like this smutty media frenzy during his 2010 campaign to become Governor of New York. Early in that campaign it was revealed that Paladino sent a variety of pornographic emails to his friends and business associates, including one of a woman being fucked by a horse. Ah, the nobility of public service.
Cacti
I think the Congressman is in for a hard time. But if he sticks it out, surely he can overcome his flaccid poll numbers.
Gin & Tonic
@Soonergrunt: Weiner did the damage to himself.
Shortstop
@raven: You’re not “just saying” anything. You’re just emoting with zero reasoning or data behind it, like you always do.
Villago Delenda Est
@joes527:
Agreed. The stupid of Weiner. It burns.
That and his really bright move of lying to Nancy Smash and the rest of the Dem House leadership about the dick pics. Smooth move. That’s why he had zero support from them.
He should stick to his well-paid gig that’s moved himself and his family to nicer digs on the upper east side, and forget about politics. But there’s something about these narcissistic asses that won’t let them stop.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Brandon: Because a weiner sometimes thinks for itself.
Gin & Tonic
@handsmile: Wow, John Liu as a “far better Democrat”? Isn’t it too early in the day for drinking?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Please tell me New York has better options in the Dem primary than this assclown. A city that big and that Democratic has to have somebody better.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s the ego. Lance Armstrong could have kept all of his Tour de France titles had he stayed retired after the first time because the statute of limitations would have run out.
If Weiner stays in, though, I hope he gets crushed. (I’m also hoping this image ends our run on weiner jokes.)
Punchy
Tony Weiner is a great pr0n name.
Suffern ACE
@Villago Delenda Est: He should stick to his well-paid gig that’s moved himself and his family to nicer digs on the upper east side,
Grammercy Park. Heavens. That’s not the upper east side! That’s the charming but boring part of “almost downtown.”
Mandalay
@Cacti:
Exactly. Weiner is a thoroughly disgusting human being, before even considering him as a politician. The irony is that his on-line activities may end up helping his campaign: as long as all the media focus is on that issue he will get a free pass on other issues such as his racism, his devotion to Israel, and his incompetence.
raven
@Shortstop: data, fuck you
Shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: I understand the burning need to write a happier ending, but not the blinders that make someone think they can pull that off after virtually any event just because they want to.
MikeJ
@Shortstop:
He would have never run for any elected office anywhere in his entire life. It’s sort of a requirement to get elected to anything.
Villago Delenda Est
All this Tywin Lannister jumping up and down and screaming about whores is just ridiculous, but it’s true that Spitzer simply gave up any political ambitions he had, while “Family Values” scumbag Vitter has no problem retaining office, and the criminally irresponsible (for abandoning his post) Mark Sanford is returning to the House tells you a lot about the two major parties.
beltane
@handsmile:
It has always been this way. Even before Giuliani/Bloomberg, NYC elected a disproportionate number of Republican mayors (Lindsay, LaGuardia). An analogous situation exists in heavily Democratic Massachusetts where they elected a long string of Republican governors.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
Those tony NYC neighborhoods all look the same from out here on the left coast, where we’re waiting for the next wagon train to survive the Indian attacks to bring us news from civilization.
(insert gigantic sarcasm klaxon here)
mai naem
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Exactly. I don’t particularly care for Weiner myself but New Yawkers can decide. Also, Weiner wants to have some kind of public position and this is part of what he needs to do to get there. By public I mean even a teevee gig. Supposely the Clintons don’t like this guy – don’t know what that means being that they like the Bushes, Lanny Davis and Dick Morris, and dislike Howard Dean.
Still makes me sick to see how Spitzer wasted all his potential on a freaking hooker. Seriously, ugh. I have to believe Obama would have nominated him for AG, Treasury, the Rich Cordray job or SEC head.
Suffern ACE
@Villago Delenda Est: O.K. But I thought that Spitzer (and McGreevy for that matter) were forced out by prosecutors. The voters weren’t going to be given the option. Was yeah, Vitter crossed state lines, but were the US Attorneys investigating him at the time? With Spitzer, I thought it was “resign or you’ll go to jail”.
Redshirt
“Weiner’s Up!”
“Weiner’s Dysfunction”
“Another Weiner Run”
The NY Post is happy.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Redshirt: Maybe we can get some “where’s the bun” headlines.
quannlace
Nobody’s made the ‘strange bedfellows’ joke?
Jay C
@askew:
Does there? Sad to say (as a New Yorker) the Dem candidate pool for the upcoming Mayoral race is a buffoon circus of hacks, crooks and tools – and Anthony Weiner’s entry into the race doesn’t exactly raise the standards much – for the biggest city in the country, our local [machine] system seems to have lost the ability to produce better options for the voters on the local level.
Mnemosyne
In Los Angeles mayoral news, I am officially An Old because the newly elected mayor is younger than me.
Forum Transmitted Disease
I’m don’t have a problem with Weiner’s lying, or texting pics of his underwear covered dick.
My problem with him is that he always has rather openly taken the side of AIPAC, and not the country that he’s supposedly a citizen of.
MikeJ
@Cacti:
Johns typically aren’t prosecuted at all, much less wind up in prison. Generally the worst that happens to them a night in jail.
Pretty much the only way anyone would get sent to prison for using the services of a prostitute is if the prosecutor really wants to get rid of you and that’s all they’ve got.
SatanicPanic
Weiner wasn’t anything but our version of Michelle Bachman- a pol who never got anything done but spent a lot of time on television. And sending dick pix to women who didn’t want them= not OK. Fuck him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
(an aside…OK, so I am not familiar with the NYC tony residential lingo. Ty for the correction!!)
You’re right they were. The Spitzer case seems to have been one of those “Aha, we’ve got you now, motherfucker!” things orchestrated by the vile criminal movers and shakers of Wall Street…they found a place to apply leverage, and did so with relish. Also this happened during the deserting coward malassministration, which means that it’s not unreasonable to think that there was something beyond mere law enforcement going on, given what we know…KNOW…about pressure being brought to bear on U.S. Attorneys to pursue certain angles even if there was no there there.
Redshirt
Am I a bad person that I don’t care about anything political anymore other than: Are you a Republican or support Republican ideology? If yes, I am against you. If no, I will support you IF you are a credible resource to oppose Republican ideology.
I am entirely a one issue voter these days: Anti-Republican.
So, in this case, it’s dick jokes, cuz otherwise I hope Weiner (or the Democrat in his stead) wins.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
To operate otherwise is to go Nader…and insure the worst that can happen, will happen.
mai naem
@handsmile: Being that you are active in NY state dems politics why does this woman http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/DA/biography.html not run for something bigger? I ran across her on something I was reading last year and I can’t believe the State Dems haven’t picked her to run for something bigger.
OT, I was reading some stuff about OK funding for the tornadoes and the Speaker for the OK house is a black wingnut a la Carson. He apparently worked for JC Watts. I also was watching Chuck Todd yesterday and he had the state rep for Moore who would not spit out that they absolutely needed the federal funds. He kept on about how the state was going to release $45 mill from the rainy day fund and how if the feds didn’t come through, OK would do just fine on their own blah blah blah…. seriously dumbass. A thousand homes at $50k a piece and your $45 mill is gone and you haven’t even touched schools, roads and other infrastructure.
Shortstop
@MikeJ: I get that, but the problem comes with the addition of the other two traits I mentioned. Every would-be politician has a healthy ego; not all of them ascend dizzying heights of denial and entitlement, to the point at which they think there’s literally no judgment so poor it can keep them from public office.
Cassidy
The real question is whether Weiner has the stamina to see this through to the end or will his time come way too early? Will he be in it for the satisfaction of all New Yorkers, or in and out for his own?
hildebrand
Weiner tries to slide in after midnight, yearning for the warm embrace of all New Yorkers, expecting stiff competition, and hoping he doesn’t blow it this time.
New Yorkers collectively shrug, ‘Hmph, he is like every other sleazy politician, they come and they go, leaving us with the mess to clean up after they have screwed us.’
(Why such low-rent, sophomoric humor? Because that is all this wanker deserves.)
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@hildebrand: You left out “and they don’t even leave a tip.”
Villago Delenda Est
@hildebrand:
Ayup. At least this gives the Juicitariat a chance to scribble some bon mots in comments.
Redshirt
I hope there’s a “Richard Weiner” somewhere in the family.
For my own research: Does anyone personally know a guy named “Dick” who’s under 60 years old?
Cassidy
Ah man. If there is a come from behind victory in this, I’ll giggle hysterically.
joes527
Someone mentioned in the thread yesterday that Weiner was always a regional politician. The national furor wasn’t even about him. It was about whether Breitbart would have a big scoop, or be caught pushing fake news. (with his pants down – as it were)
All too many progressives looked at those 2 possibilities and let what they hoped was happening cloud their judgement about what was happening. Confirmation bias was rampant, and yeah “supporting” Weiner was seen as a thumb in Breitbart’s eye, so Weiner became the flavor of the month amongst a lot of folks that knew nothing about him.
Fortunately (or unfortunately. take your pick) God hated Breitbart even more than most progressives did, so that issue is gone. That doesn’t make Weiner a winner.
Villago Delenda Est
On the subject of the name (pedant mode ON):
As someone who can read and pronounce German, you all need to know that “Weiner” sounds like “whiner”. If it were spelled “Wiener”, then we’d be in Oscar Meyer territory.
(pedant mode OFF)
Go ahead, have your fun, all you Cartmans and Kyles and Stans.
Mandalay
Part of psycho Weiner’s 64 point plan for world domination:
So if you are arrested but not charged, NYPD might take a sample of your DNA, or then again they might not. Depends whether it’s practicable.
Weiner is running for office, but he belongs in a padded cell.
aimai
@TR: Senators and Governors are really different people operating in really different settings. There was actually a pretty good analysis of the pressures on both kinds of politicians and it turns out that there is just no pressure for Senators to step down and there is quite a lot of pressure for Governors to do so. I don’t think its a straight up “our guys are pussies and drop out” and their guys don’t. I think that the high profile cases of Senators show that the party has a lot more to loose on a national level and so doesn’t pressure Senators to drop out while the local party has a lot to lose and nothing to gain by supporting their governors, in Spitzer’s case.
joes527
@Mandalay:
Being the NYPD, this will obviously depend on the melanin level, just like “stop and frisk.”
handsmile
@mai naem:
I appreciate your reply. My activity/advocacy is more focused upon NYC politics rather NY State.
That caveat aside, Kathleen Rice does possess a certain measure of visibility in state party circles and is understood to harbor greater political ambition. She did lose her 2010 Democratic primary bid to become state Attorney General, however.
While a campaign for US Congress would seem to be a reasonable next step for her, Rice would confront the considerable (read, unmovable) object of incumbent Republican Peter King. Nassau County (aka western Long Island) has become a graveyard for Democratic politicians.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
You didn’t mention what the noun Weiner means in German: “one who weeps/whines”.
Mandalay
@joes527:
Exactly. Weiner wants to allow NYPD to optionally take a DNA sample from anyone they to arrest.
But instead of examining what this sick psychofuck might actually do if he became mayor, I’m sure our media will focus on making entirely predictable and unfunny one-liners.
Pretty much like this thread.
Epicurus
The dudgeon is quite high in this thread. I was previously unaware that Mr. Wiener had personally insulted so many members of the commentariat by flirting (electronically) with women to whom he was not married. Once again, where’s the beef? Did he cheat on YOU?? If not, feel free to enjoy a hot, steaming cup of STFU. As for his “coverup”? Please…let’s move on to some real scandals, shall we? Also, too, the mere fact that he has thrown a wrench into the gears of the Quinn juggernaut is reason enough for me to be happy with his entry into the race. ABQ, baby, ANYBODY but Quinn.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: Right, but although he spells it “Weiner,” he does pronounce it “Wiener,” which confuses people.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Well, I can’t help him if he’s stupid enough to set up all the jokes.
Mnemosyne
@Epicurus:
It was still covered by his grey briefs, but it seemed to be there.
It’s not the cyber-cheating people can’t forgive, it’s the Bill Clinton-like stupidity and arrogance. You know that your enemies are gunning for you and monitoring your Twitter feed and yet you decide to tweet pictures of your (covered) erection anyway? It makes one wonder what other stupid things Weiner will decide to do because he’s convinced he won’t get caught.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: Exactly. Dude is a trainwreck.
Mandalay
@Epicurus:
You are arguing that sending photos of your dick to women who are not your wife is “flirting”? Seriously?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
Agreed. If you put your picture out on the Intertubes, you no longer have any control of it, and if enemies are gunning for you (the revelation of the dick-pics was timed perfectly to sabotage Weiner’s demands for a probe into Clarence Thomas’ possible ethical lapses) then you’re doubly stupid for doing it in the first place.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: It’s also the more boring “One from Vienna”, but it makes one wonder if the one definition is related to the other…
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Mandalay: In this case I’d agree that it falls to the level of “flirting” because let’s face it, what he was sending pictures of falls under the heading of “pathetic” or “comical” rather than “impressive”.
jlow
Given how recent the scandal was, I wonder if this announcement isn’t coming prematurely.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yatsuno:
How does it go? “In Berlin the situation is serious but not desperate; in Vienna, the situation is desperate but not serious.”
Amir Khalid
@Yatsuno:
Jemand, der weint, ist Weiner. Whereas a Wiener (i before e) something/someone is Viennese. The man himself spells his name “Weiner” and pronounces it “Wiener”, which does confuse matters somewhat.
Betty Cracker
@Epicurus: Weiner sent the photos unsolicited to women who were not happy to receive them. It’s not flirting: It’s the virtual equivalent of flashing. Not to mention unbelievably stupid.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
In this context, I suppose it depends on whether one’s sausage is a Berliner or a Wiener.
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy.
Amir Khalid
@Epicurus:
What Betty Cracker said. Surely Weiner’s stupidity and failure of impulse control must give a voter pause, to question his fitness for public office?
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
truly, it’s the wurst scandal weiner has ever had to deal with.
shortstop
@chopper: No one wants to know how his sausage gets made.
Mandalay
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Yes, I get all that, but for a member of Congree to send unsolicited photos of his erection goes way beyond flirting, or being comical/pathetic. There is something wrong him, and there was/is a problem with his marriage.
While I am sure that men all over the world also do what Weiner did, they are not running as Democrats. Once you become a prominent figure you expose yourself to humiliation and even blackmail by doing that stuff. I am not saying that Weiner has done it again since he was caught, but he probably has a predisposition for that behavior, and he is a liability to Democrats.
And apart from any moral issues, his behavior highlights his bad judgment. The man is a fool.
MomSense
@Mandalay:
Plus I think the recipient of the dick pic was not pleased.
Professor Fate
@Epicurus:
Per Webster’s to Flirt means “to behave amorously without serious intent ”
if sending unwanted and unrequested pictures of your underware clad erect penis to women is one’s idea of ‘flirting” one hesitates to inquire what crossing the line would intail.
Phil Perspective
@Forum Transmitted Disease: My problem with him is that he always has rather openly taken the side of AIPAC, and not the country that he’s supposedly a citizen of.
That also goes for all the other top Democratic contenders. They all suck up to noted terrorist, and NY State pol, Dov Hikind.
stonetools
@MomSense:
I think the woman involved have spoke on the issue, and while she wasn’t weren’t pleased, she also didn’t want him to lose his job over it. I’m thinking maybe censure and a stiff fine may have been the better way to deal with the offense, rather than forcing him out.
After he was forced out, a Republican took his seat. How did that work out for us?
As to him exercising poor judgment in the area of women , so did FDR, JFK, and William J Clinton. JFK was shtupping Marilyn Munroe and a Mafia mistresss while President, FFS. What Wiener did was as nothing compared to that.
Going forward, it’s up to the NY voters to decide if they forgive him for what he did. I expect Quinn to win.
Billy
It’s too soon, just too soon. I don’t like grabbers with no shame from either party.
Bob h
I listened to an interview with him on WNYC yesterday, and was pretty impressed by his intelligence. I don’t think he’s finished.