FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON DC–July 30, 2013–With millions of consumers making the move to glass houses, stone concessions–kiosks that dispense hefty rocks suitable for hurling through plate glass–were thought to be part of a dying industry, a relic like typewriter ribbon production plants and “Wite-Out” factories. But a new piece by WashingtonPost.com “On Faith” columnist Sally Quinn has unexpectedly breathed life into a waning economic sector.
In a column entitled “Blaming Huma Abedin,” Quinn outlines her objections to Anthony Wiener’s wife’s decision to stand by the pixyish peen-pix purveyor rather than doing something more dignified, such as finding a rich, married managing editor to hump and then parlaying that opportunity into a lofty nepotism perch from which to lord it over the Beltway social scene for the next 50 years.
“I’m telling you, this industry was on its last legs, what with the loss of privacy thanks to the Internet and people’s growing sense that they could attract an incoming barrage if they let stones fly at a neighbor’s glass house in a particularly hypocritical manner,” said Bash Brickbat, proprietor of Ye Olde Stone Shoppe, a colorfully painted pushcart on K Street.
“I mean, everyone is a little hypocritical, but come on. Sally’s column landed like a meteor in the side of the Hoover Dam, sending hypocrisy gushing through the wall and flooding the valley,” Brickbat continued. “This emboldens a new bunch of eye-mote removers with beams of their own. It’s like that time Bill Kristol accused someone of being wrong about Iraq.”
When read the following excerpt from Quinn’s column, several throwing-stone industry analysts responded with incredulity and terminated a reporter’s call, concluding that they were victims of a prank:
I have nothing against Abedin. I like her: She is a lovely, gracious, intelligent woman. I ache for her need to come to the rescue of this man who has betrayed her so often and will likely do it again. I ache for all women who find themselves in this position. And yet, there she stood in front of the cameras, this modern American career woman, by her man, saying she had forgiven him, loved him and believed in him. Just what exactly does she believe in? The only thing she can believe in for sure is that he will continue his infidelity.
Though her friends say she is strong and resolute and defiant, sadly she makes all women look like weak and helpless victims. She was not standing there in a position of strength. It was such a setback for women everywhere.
Other analysts urged caution at the prospect of a tossing-stone industry resurgence sparked by Quinn’s column:
“Look, the Washington Post shunted Quinn off to their online edition years ago because she’s such an embarrassment,” said one analyst, commenting under the condition of anonymity. “You can think Wiener’s an eFlasher who would make a terrible mayor, and you can believe Abedin’s an idiot for putting up with his bullshit.
“You can even imagine that Abedin’s choice somehow reflects badly on every woman on the entire planet, though to make that leap, it helps if you’re psychotic. But you don’t publicly tut-tut ‘infidelity,’ not if you’re Sally Fucking Quinn.”
Just Some Fuckhead
I love these fake stories. We should start a fake story blog like The Onion, except better, and bloggier.
Comrade Mary
I am so tempted to use the word that we’re not supposed to use even though I kind of a little bit think that as a woman I have a small quota of totally justified usage of that word that I could totally call on right now but I won’t.
/sigh
That Sally Quinn. What a maroon.
Smiling Mortician
The balls on Sally Quinn.
Princess Leia
“In a column entitled “Blaming Huma Abedin,” Quinn outlines her objections to Anthony Wiener’s wife’s decision to stand by the pixyish peen-pix purveyor rather than doing something more dignified, such as finding a rich, married managing editor to hump and then parlaying that opportunity into a lofty nepotism perch from which to lord it over the Beltway social scene for the next 50 years.” ZING!!!!!
Comrade Mary
@Smiling Mortician: .. she’d be my UNCLE.
Oops. Wrong joke.
That Sally Quinn. What a trolley car.
Baud
I thankfully don’t know enough about Quinn to get the joke.
And Weiner’s creepy, but has he been unfaithful?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Baud: If I was sending out dick pics to random strangers on the internet, I’d consider that being unfaithful. However, if I’m masturbating to other people’s dick pics, that seems okay somehow. It’s complicated.
Baud
@Comrade Mary:
Don’t do it. It’ll be a setback for women everywhere.
Central Planning
I’m not impacted by the NY mayoral race, but how exactly does taking pictures of your wiener affect Carlos Danger’s ability to govern?
Is there a relationship like lengh vs. ability to be bribed? Girth vs. trustworthiness?
Really, why should I care what he does with a camera/chat room with other consenting adults?
Yatsuno
Wow Sally. Just wow. Mote in your own eye much dear?
Botsplainer
Betty, if you were younger, I’d want you to have my babies.
Come to think of it, I have a 19 year old daughter that you’re welcome to EVEN AS WE SPEAK.
Throwin Stones
I need to open a stand in the DC vicinity.
Comrade Mary
@Baud: I wouldn’t actually do it: I just like to talk around it. You get the gist.
The Quinn joke: she had an affair with her married boss, Ben Bradlee, when she started working at the Post. Reader, she married him (eventually), but he was married to someone else first.
joel hanes
@Baud:
Sally Quinn famously got her position at the WaPo by fscking her boss, who was married to someone else at the time.
Baud
@Central Planning:
I would hold his lack of judgement and self restraint against him.
catclub
@Just Some Fuckhead: ” We should start a fake story blog like The Onion, except better, and bloggier.”
Too much work. Making it look easy, as The Onion does, takes even MORE work.
Eric U.
the wiki entry about her appears to be sanitized, but it contains a quote on how she got her job with the post. Bradlee asked her for a sample of her writing and she told him she hadn’t written anything. He replied that nobody is perfect.
Baud
@Comrade Mary: @joel hanes:
That doesn’t make her a hypocrite. She’s consistently in favor of wives leaving their cheating husbands.
Kay
I watched part of the press conference and I just don’t get either of them at all. I can’t figure them out enough to judge them. No idea what’s going on there. At one point she looked bored, like her mind was wandering. I was afraid she was going to wander off, mid-sentence.
drkrick
@Central Planning: There’s generally a relationship between being respected enough to do business as mayor and not being an international laughingstock. Also, in a business where being trustworthy enough to deliver on a deal once it’s made, it’s good not to have a record of public promises casually tossed aside.
But you’re right, girth and length aren’t very relevant.
Punchy
Isn’t Huma Abedin a Mooslim? So doesn’t that automatically disqualify her from feelings, morals, and judgement? Shouldn’t her correct response be to fly a kite into their doghouse to cause as much terror as possible?
Just Some Fuckhead
@catclub:
Not if you love your subject matter.
Comrade Mary
@Just Some Fuckhead: That was a work of art.
Smiling Mortician
FWIW: On the rare occasions that I have spent more than 5 seconds thinking about the whole Weiner thing, I like to imagine that when they’re off camera, Huma is making life fucking miserable for Tony, the stupid cad. Now, however, I think I’ll switch to imagining Huma dumping a bucket of pigs’ blood on Sally during the Beltway Prom, right when she’s getting crowned queen.
Mandalay
@Baud:
It’s a moot point really. How would most wives would feel if their husband was writing this stuff to other women?….
To ask whether Weiner is actually being unfaithful is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Gex
Because we all know feminism is about forcing women to behave in ways that society would like them to and not in the manner that seems appropriate for them and their lives.
Please, Sally, stop sticking up for women.
These people’s heads would explode if it turned out that they have an open relationship and that came out. Abedin and Weiner should consider putting that out there just for that purpose.
Gin & Tonic
@Central Planning: You shouldn’t care what he does with his dick or his camera, none of which has any bearing on the fact that he is manifestly unqualified to be mayor, having held no executive or municipal electoral position, and is only in the race because he has an ego the size of Mongolia. That may have some bearing on what he does with hsi dick and his camera, though.
kc
Blaming Huma Abedin seems to be de rigueur all of a sudden. It’s not just Quinn.
karen
@Comrade Mary:
I’m not sure if I remember right but didn’t she also have an affair with Carl Bernstein?
Gin & Tonic
@Mandalay: Thanks a bunch for posting that, which I cannot now unsee.
Baud
@Mandalay:
I don’t disagree in regards to their relationship. I’m just wondering about linguistic accuracy.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Mary: You always say that. Sometimes it seems like you are the only one here that gets me. You were the only one that liked this one.
Baud
@kc:
Didn’t Dowd have a similar hate piece? I don’t read pundits, but I heard about it.
MattF
I’m so pleased. I do so despise Sally Quinn.
Amir Khalid
@Central Planning:
Consider Weiner’s poor judgement, his lack of self-control, his failure to learn from a very public mistake that has already driven him from one elected office. Should NYC voters trust him in office again? One might justifiably think not.
scav
So the modern American career woman’s position of strength is not standing there which is a position of setback for women, but rather to lie-back in a position of rapid advancement for women? OOOOOO-kay, must be the new rules of GOP-Gender-Twister in the trendy retro roll-back packaging. I’m still struggling to reconcile this with the Faux platformed statement that his priapic phone autodial, indeed his very campaign are both somehow entirely due to her vague connections to the Muslim brotherhood and resultant necessary unattractiveness, but with all the stones and glasses being tossed (glasses probably tossed back before targeting phase) I can imagine things getting a little muddled. They certainly have agreed on the target though. Not the one with the phone, he’s already irrelevant (probably a good call) but they need and will take more.
kc
@Baud:
I didn’t see the Dowd piece, but in the last few days I’ve seen variations of the “what’s wrong with Huma” meme all over the Net – Slate, Yahoo, MSN – as well as heard them parroted by some wingnut assholes I know.
catclub
@Just Some Fuckhead: That was great.
“walk backwards to get away and wounds up crashing into kestel who is my uncle on both sides”
Mandalay
@Baud:
Well I doubt if anyone here loathes and despises Weiner more than me, but from a linguistic perspective I would not claim that he has been unfaithful.
Others, most famously Jimnmy Carter, believe that you can be unfaithful to your wife without having physical contact with anyone else. YMMV.
boatboy_srq
Something tells me that Wendy Vitter, Darlene Ensign, Suzanne Thompson, and Jenny Sullivan at some point or other did exactly the same thing. Except for them, the Reichwing embraced them for doing “the right thing,” whereas here they’re saying Abedin should do anything else.
Hungry Joe
Betty Cracker’s second paragraph … let’s get some estimates on having that done in skywriting over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Or we could have a graffiti artist spray it on side of the Post building, then spring for his bail.
kc
Maybe Quinn’s not being hypocritical. Maybe she really thinks Abedin should set Weiner free so he can marry 22-yr-old Formspring User . . .
Comrade Mary
@Just Some Fuckhead: I am here to bring attention to gems like that one. I guess that I’m just your huckleberry.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Mary: I guess so.
mapaghimagsik
@Mandalay: hate to sound pedantic, but did he misspell “squeal”?
Baud
@kc:
I think it all boils down to her closeness with Hillary. I can practically read the 2016 campaign stories now.
Botsplainer
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Are these rules compiled in a book somewhere? And does it have a flowchart?
maya
@Gin & Tonic: Actually, he was a NYC councilman in 1991, at age 27, and had a fairly good record for seven years. But, now fast approaching 50 he has reverted to childlike behavior.
He’d be better off in advertizing than in politics. For instance,
Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner,
That is what I’d truly like to be.
‘Cause if I was an Oscar Meyer Weiner,
I’d show them all for all the girls to see.
A natural.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Botsplainer:
Yes, but they doesn’t translate well from the original Hebrew.
Baud
So is there a movement to have women tweet photos of their genitalia in support of Huma?
kc
@Baud:
Yep, that’s one of the themes – “she stays with him because she’s power-mad, just like her mentor SHRILLARY!”
kc
@mapaghimagsik:
Yes he did, and that’s why he’s not qualified to hold office.
Belafon
@Central Planning: I think it’s OK for voters to decide whether it will affect their votes. What shouldn’t happen, which applies here as long as both parties agreed, and in the case of Clinton, is that consenting adults doing stuff is not illegal. And, in the case of pictures being sent, I’m not real sure there’s anything that could be done if you received a picture you didn’t want.
Comrade Mary
@Baud: Can’t I just link to stuff like this instead?
mapaghimagsik
@kc: I’ll say. It’s one step away from “ASL?”.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
All of that. Plus he has become a laughing stock, he has repeatedly told massive self-serving lies, he had a lousy record in Congress, he shows no respect for women, he refuses to address his problem, he has a slavish and dishonest devotion to Israel, he is unable to to get along with others, and he is shunned by most Democrat politicians.
But apart from that he’d make a great mayor for New York.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Mary: As long as it’s a painting of your own vagina, it counts.
Baud
@Mandalay:
That’s a drawback in New York?
Trollhattan
@Central Planning:
The first go, I thought it was overblown (no pun intended) and had he simply, quickly said “I did this dumb thing, yeah” he could have kept his seat, but he kept lying and lying before being cornered into confessing and resigning.
Badly played, and especially bad for someone in public office. Horrible decision-making and frankly, questions of his maturity.
Afterwards, he publicly proclaimed it was all behind him, he had learned the errors of his teenage ways and he wouldn’t subject his family to anything of the sort, ever again. Runs for mayor and zut alors, even after trying to inoculate himself with “there are probably other old items out there, sure, from before” this batch shows up and they were done AFTER his proclamation to have “totally quit, yo.”
Takeaway: he’s a disturbed person who I wouldn’t trust in public office, even though I live time zones away. I would think he’d also have a hard time forming the networks needed to successfullly govern. He’s not stupid and can surely find something else useful to do.
mapaghimagsik
@Just Some Fuckhead: send portraits of orchids, instead?
Just Some Fuckhead
@mapaghimagsik: As long as it’s the orchid that sends it, it counts.
Smiling Mortician
@Trollhattan: He’s not stupid
Hmm.
Yatsuno
@Comrade Mary: Yer definitely a sweetheart, I’ll grant you that. :)
Comrade Mary
@Just Some Fuckhead: Painting of my own vagina.
EconWatcher
Betty, may I just say, this is a very fine piece of writing, and Sarah Proud and Tall has nothing on you.
Baud
@Comrade Mary:
I was trying to come up with a reason why that wasn’t good enough, but it would actually be kind of cool if people did that.
Comrade Mary
@Yatsuno: Awww. (I hope the painting of my own vagina didn’t scare you. It’s awfully dark in there.)
Shakezula
All brilliant, but Bash Brickbat made me giggle out loud.
Rustydude
Brilliant! Somehow this needs to go viral. Of course, even if it does, Sally Quinn will continue to have no shame.
Baud
@Comrade Mary:
Was that painted by your unborn child?
Botsplainer
@Mandalay:
Jesus – that was embarrassing. You’d think he’d have more of an erotic and literary vocabulary – he smut talks like a really immature 15 year old kid.
He would not get a HOT list ranking on Literotica….
Poopyman
Formspring? Isn’t that the kind of pan you use to make cheesecake?
Silver & Silkey
Betty Cracker, you are the Queen of Snark for July’s internets. No one can surpass you in the next 2 days. You will be nominated for the 2013 Snarkiest Prize, and we bet you’ll win!
Mandalay
@Baud:
Generally not, but Weiner claimed that Israel wasn’t occupying the West Bank. That raises legitimate questions about his honesty, competence and sanity….
Eric U.
@boatboy_srq: see, with Vitter it wasn’t cheating, because he would have the prostitute dress him up in a diaper, then he would soil the diaper, and then the prostitute would change it. Just like when he was a baby, so not cheating on his wife.
Actually, if Vitter’s activities aren’t the most impressive demonstration that IOKIYAR, I don’t know what is.
David Hunt
@Botsplainer:
there is a rulebook. It is on this guy’s shelf
xkcd.com/330/
Just Some Fuckhead
@Comrade Mary: Turn on the bedroom light next time you have your vagina painted.
mapaghimagsik
@Mandalay: Burr you can be sure that right after that hour talk about occupying, he sent the West Bank a picture of his junk.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
A slavish and dishonest devotion to Israel is indeed of concern in a member of Congress; in a mayor of New York, who has no real say in foreign policy, maybe not so much.
Cassidy
Has Wiener actually committed infidelity?
mapaghimagsik
Phone won’t let me edit. FYWP/Android
boatboy_srq
@Eric U.: THAT only counts if Mrs. Vitter goes on record saying she would never, ever change her spouse’s soiled undies for him. At that point it becomes a staffing issue. Until then, however, it counts as cheating. Sorry.
I’m torn between Vitter and Craig as the most impressive demonstrations of IOKIYAR as regards personal relationships (or lack thereof), though Mark “Appalachian Tail” Sanford is hiking a close third.
Amir Khalid
@Cassidy:
Technically, maybe not, in that he didn’t actually have sex with any other woman. But it’s a violation of the spirit of his marriage vows — you know, in a Jimmy Carterish sense.
Trollhattan
@Poopyman:
Nope, it’s used to make cakecheese.
nancydarling
Sally Quinn said in a conversation with Bob Woodward back in the day that everyone in her little village has “robust sex lives” and if Clinton had just chosen to have an affair with a discreet divorcee, none of that awful stuff in the 90’s would have happened.
PurpleGirl
@Baud: While you might not think so, there are NYers who wonder why NYC has its own foreign policy regarding Israel.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
It’s the dishonesty that bothers me even more than the devotion. And how his Muslim wife can remain silent when he repeatedly insists that Israel is not occupying the West Bank is really disturbing.
Others argue that Abedin tolerating Weiner’s online misbehavior is evidence that she craves power at any price. Maybe, but her silence over Weiner’s lies about Israel is much more compelling evidence to me.
Amir Khalid
I have just the campaign song for Mr Anthony Weiner.
mapaghimagsik
@Cassidy: I guess it depends on your definition. Isn’t the decision tree done yet?
I mean it seems like there’s another consenting party, and arguably “cyber-sex”. From what was presented, no fluids were swapped.
I guess an equivalent would be him having phone sex with another woman. Alleged woman.
Suzanne
Good Lord. This is like reading the most boring porn ever. At least Vitter’s fantasies are interesting.
I am not defending Sally Quinn, but she is right about one shitty thing: Huma Abedin staying with her loser of a husband does end up reflecting on other women. In the patriarchy, men’s decisions are their own, while women end up serving as negative or positive examples for other women. It must suck to have the weight of expectation on you in addition to having a Weiner problem.
Mandalay
@mapaghimagsik:
Indeed. Weiner’s humiliation would be complete if it turned out that he was jerking off to a fifteen year old schoolboy prankster, or a 300 pound trucker killing time on his laptop at a truck stop.
something fabulous
@Mandalay: “Democrat politicians”? Missing a suffix, there, surely?
The Moar You Know
Weiner gets publicly crucified without, so far as we can tell, actually having stuck his undoubtedly tiny dick in anyone, while Gavin Newsom fucks half the women in San Francisco during the brief periods of time that he’s not too drunk/smacked out on oxycontin to get it up, and he’s now Lieutenant Governor of California.
Is it just that Newsom’s better looking, or what? I don’t get it.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Suzanne: If you think that’s hot, check it out in twitter/text speak:
Mandalay
@something fabulous:
I knew one of them was wrong, but wasn’t sure which. I googled ““Democrat politicians” and “Democratic politicians” and got more hits for the former, so I am not the only clueless twerp.
Thanks for putting me straight.
mapaghimagsik
That’s Bill O’Reily level of bad writing. It’s sad that her choice is somehow a statement about all women. I can’t judge her, because it’s not about her in the sense that if she were the one cheating, I’m not sure we’d be here, talking about why he was staying, aside from the obvious “unable to satisfy” jokes.
People stay together for a variety of reasons.
Suzanne
@Botsplainer:
THIS.
This is the vanilla-est of the vanilla. If I’m going to be subjected to this tawdry shit, I want it to at least be creative.
I bet he comes in, like, ten seconds and just lays on top and thrusts half-heartedly. Huma: DIVORCE.
Southern Beale
Just saw on Twitter that Sally Quinn has sold her memoir, to be published in 2015.
One can only imagine.
mapaghimagsik
@Just Some Fuckhead: pedantic again. Isn’t it “ballz”?
beltane
@Suzanne: If Huma Abedin staying with her husband reflects poorly on all women, then so does Sally Quinn’s homewrecking, Maureen Dowd’s pettiness, Sarah Palin’s stupidity, Michele Bachmann’s craziness, etc. The world is full of women whose behavior and values I do not care for; if I thought for a moment that any of them reflected poorly on me, I would be forced to pull out my hair and rend my garments in shame at having two X chromosomes.
beltane
@Southern Beale: I’ll bet that Sally Quinn can do smut much better than Anthony Weiner.
Trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Barney Frank’s diningroom table can be lieutenant governor of California. It’s the nothingburger of state offices.
Botsplainer
@Suzanne:
Rolls over with a grin on his face, saying “boy that was GREAT! I think I’ll nap now.”
Mandalay
@The Moar You Know:
I think some may have more respect for politicians who have sex with real women (Newsom, Spitzer, et al) rather than those who just jerk off alone. Screwing lots of women is at least “normal” (and even admirable to some?), but sending images of your dick is just icky and pathetic.
Comrade Mary
@Just Some Fuckhead: Sweet Jesus, I swear I had a sex drive when I walked in here.
/looks under cushions
Nope. Totally gone. Dang.
Cassidy
@Amir Khalid: I just get annoyed with people acting like he’s been running around with a mistress and prostitutes. From the press alone, that’s the impression they’ve given. If she feels like he’s cheated on her, I get that, although I think that whole “emotional affair” thing is a dumptruck full of bullshit.
PurpleGirl
@Mandalay: The reason you probably got more hits for “democrat (whatever)” is that Republicans prefer to use that egregiously wrong form of the word.
Just Some Fuckhead
@mapaghimagsik: Honestly, I have no idea. I use this app: transl8it.com/
I discovered it when I was trying to figure out how to better communicate with my teenaged daughter. It was a lifesaver.
Baud
@Comrade Mary:
You had a sex drive and you decided to come to Balloon Juice?
Comrade Mary
@Baud: BLAMING THE VICTIM!
Botsplainer
@Mandalay:
Is this a corollary to the basic rule “there are no 14 year old girls on the internet who want you. They’re all 62 year old vice detectives named Frank with a hiatal hernia, a drinking problem, a gambling issue, a nasty ex-wife named Stella who won’t give up on the alimony claims, and engage in the sexy talk while chomping on a soggy cigar and reciting the details to some younger detective they’ve decided should get the shit job of collating the chat logs for the arrest.”
Mandalay
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I think you mean: I discovered it wen I wz trying 2 figur out how 2 BetA communicate w my teenaged dAutr. It wz a lifesaver.
Cool tool.
J R in WV
So Quinn was offended because Bill had an affair with a woman way younger and more attractive then Quinn herself?
Is Quinn a divorcee now? perhaps she really, really had a hard on for Bill and was hurt feefees when he had handjob BJ sex with Monica…?
Is Quinn hot for Weiner? Is that why she hates Huma?
Curious minds want to know!
geg6
I wouldn’t vote for the guy, but I really don’t give a shit who, how many and which sex acts (or not as seems to be the case here) Weiner has committed. We’ve had great presidents, congresscritters and mayors who fucked everything in sight. We’ve also got shitty ones who do the same. If I like their policies and they fight to get them implemented? Who cares? Fuck (or not) away!
But fucking Sally Quinn? Again this hypocritical no-talent bitch is blaming the wife (like she did Hillary)? Sally “I’d have slept with Katherine Graham if it would have raised my social profille but I settled for the old man who she bossed instead” Quinn? There may be no one on the planet who I despise more than Sally Quinn (though MoDo may some day surpass her). I hate lots of people in this world but I only truly despise a few and Sally Quinn tops that list.
And Betty, this was the finest snark I’ve seen in months. Kudos and I’m going to do my best to get this as high on the Sally Quinn google results as I can. Sally Quinn herself may actually see it and join Jake Tapper in BJ infamy.
Botsplainer
@Mandalay:
This. Have the courage of your convictions, and don’t just play at being a cocksman.
Suzanne
@beltane:
And homewrecking, pettiness, stupidity, and irrationality are all socially “female” coded characteristics. I’m not saying that this is okay.
Barack Obama doesn’t just get to be the president. He also has to be a Role Model. If it ever came out that he had cheated on Michelle, we would never hear the end of the “oversexed black man” tropes. But when a white dude cheats on his wife, no one talks about how he’s embarrassing other white dudes. Women and minorities don’t get the full human privilege in this society of being autonomous people who do things for themselves only. No one thinks Weiner’s behavior reflects badly on other dudes. But plenty of people think that Abedin is “setting an example” for other women whether she stays married or not. I object to this reasoning.
Botsplainer
@Baud:
This seems like rotating tag material, if you ask me.
Just Some Fuckhead
Pre-internet/technology revolution, Anthony Wiener would have been the guy accosting your mom or sister with nothing but a raincoat and a hard-on. I’m not surprised some of you have an issue understanding the difference between creepy online behavior and consensual human relationships, given the nature of this very forum.
beltane
@geg6: Bravo!!
gogol's wife
@mapaghimagsik:
This is the kind of comment that makes me addicted to Balloon Juice.
Amir Khalid
@karen:
Maybe, maybe not. But one of his fellow reporters at the Washington Post once described Bernstein to me as “a great cocksman”.
Mandalay
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I don’t think so at all. If the internet had never happened I think Weiner would have had a stash of Playboy and Penthouse magazines hidden somewhere, that he drooled over when his wife wasn’t at home. Just like a gazillion other men probably did before the internet came along.
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid:
I am giggling imagining the arched eyebrow of incredulosity Mr. Suzanne would give me if I ever called him that.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
I tend to agree with JSF on this, especially the approaching strange women part.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Good points.
beltane
@Suzanne: By demanding that women comply with these rules of the “patriarchy” (rules that have served her remarkably well), Quinn is actively participating in the dehumanization of all women. Her argument is a deeply sexist one that demands a certain standard of behavior for “ladies” lest they do something to bring shame on the fairer sex. Yes, there a lot of racists and sexists out there, it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to conform to their ignorance, yet Ms. Quinn is demanding that we do just that.
J R in WV
Anybody got a picture of Quinn when she was first starting at the WaPo and tickling the boss?
How about a photo from when Bill and Monica were playing President-and-Intern in the Oval Office?
How about a current photo of Quinn as she denigrates an innocent and accomplished woman who has already done more with her life than Quinn’s whole career?
beltane
@J R in WV: How can you say that? Sally Quinn is like the pope of the Beltway cocktail party circuit. She has taken it upon herself to decide who is to be saved and who is to be damned.
This whole episode reminds me of middle school and how single-mindedly cruel women can be to other women who don’t conform with the rules laid down by the kewl girls.
ruemara
I’m sorry, tramp with delusions of propriety says what? Isn’t she and nooners scheduled for an inebriated bruncheon til tea time, nearly every day? IOW, shut up, you drunken git.
Violet
Sally Quinn is so judgmental of other women who have cheating husbands because she is terrified her husband has cheated or is cheating on her. She knows it’s a strong possibility he has cheated because he was cheating on his other wife when he was humping her. He has a history. Therefore, she’ll rant and rave at other women whose husbands have cheated, blaming them for anything from not being hot enough to choosing to stand by their husbands and marriage, in some misguided idea that if she shouts loud enough, her husband wouldn’t dare cheat on her.
It’s all about fear with Sally Quinn. She’s terrified of life so she tries to stop it from happening.
Amir Khalid
@J R in WV:
She’s still married to Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, who by the way has European royal connections out the wazoo (I just checked out his Wikipedia article). She must see herself as a sort of royal queen. As I recall, Quinn has always despised the Clintons as commoners and outsiders in Washington. She probably thinks the same of the Weiners.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: So she thinks she’s living the 1880s/1890s at the height of the Edwardian weekend house party at the country manor, where spouse swapping was a common occurrence but one was discreet about it. She’s the duchess and WJC didn’t honor her bedroom, as it were?
beltane
@Amir Khalid: This. She is irked that Huma Abedin is not behaving like a proper lady. The subtext here is that this type of thing is to be expected when “those people” are permitted to acquire any sort of status in society.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Amir Khalid:
I think I know a thing or two about creepy online behavior.
sharl
Bob “Daily Howler” Somerby always linked to this 1998 Quinn column in the WaPo as a superb means for understanding both Quinn and her Village of Worthies.
Suzanne
@beltane: I agree with you 110%.
All I am saying is that sexist judgment exists, not that it is A Good Thing.
Rick Massimo
@Kay: well, I presume she already had known about this latest business for a long time.
As for Quinn’s col its own self: Did Larry Craig’s wife leave him? Do we even know, offhand? Did Sally Quinn ever bother to ask?
Tehanu
@Comrade Mary:
And hilarity ensues.
@geg6:
You said a mouthful!
Bobby Thomson
@Mandalay: @kc: Damn right. That’s embarrassing.
Back on topic, I want to know what even the liberal home wrecker Richard Cohen has to say.
sherparick
@joel hanes: But it was the Seventies and everyone was borking everyone then. So it was “Okay” when I (Sally) was doing it. In Sally’s mind it was OKAY when she did it. vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/07/sally-quinn-201007
I personally liked this anonymous quote from the Vanity Fair piece describing Sally:
“People often ask me how to make conversation at dinner parties. I usually spin my head around five times in rotation, bare my fangs, and then barf out an article for the Style section.”
EconWatcher
@sharl:
Wow. This thread may be dead, but thanks for posting that old article. It was nauseating and almost unbelievable, but I learned something by reading it.