I thought it was a valid question about a complex issue about private behavior that might concern the public. After all, it looked like you were giving the guy a free pass on lying about his actions (while asking people to trust him) even after he knew his wang-sharing was going to be a major concern during his campaign. Oh well.
It depends for me on how quickly they admit it when busted. You don’t get credit for switching from denial to admission only when the evidence is incontrovertible. And I don’t know why they do it. Once the media has the scent, they are going to get you, it’s just a matter of weeks. I can forgive any politician who admitted the allegations and resigned as soon as they came out. It’s harder to forgive politicians who deny, deny, deny, and fight to keep their jobs until it becomes untenable, then hold a tearful press conference.
It’s also harder to forgive when laws were broken to cover up the misconduct. Which isn’t the case with Weiner, but that does apply to Spitzer.
Yes, I, personally, am giving him a free pass on his actions and were I a New Yorker, I would probably vote for him.
In the same way, I give Eliot Spitzer a free pass for patronizing prostitutes (because I believe it should be) legal, and I give George W. Bush for his past (probable) cocaine use, because it’s not my business (although I give him a pass for little else).
If Larry Craig would have shut up about homosexuality being immoral, I would have given him a pass on his wide stance. If Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, and David Vitter would shut up about other people’s sexual and (extra-)marital behavior, I’d give them all passes for hiking the Appalachian trail, etc.
Spitzer qualifies as a hypocrite to me, given that he as an attorney general was trying to nail corporate executives on some pretty technical violations, when he himself was doing something not so technical, but pretty clear cut, to cover up his crime. This is the guy who went after Richard Grasso for essentially just making too much money.
Prostitution should be legal, I agree, but money laundering will never be. So Spitzer, definitely one of the hypocrites.
I’d also add that any Democrat that doesn’t pay their taxes is a hypocrite on the level of a family values conservative having an affair. Paying your taxes is the Democratic version of moralizing.
He went after Grasso for lying about how much money he was making, not for making it.
It was still a rather technical violation and more a political prosecution than one that had a real chance of success. And he was prosecuted by a guy who was attempting to launder money to hide his prostitution habit.
That’s somewhat naive, I believe. Governance is an artificial construct, invented by humans to regulate communal living. Sex is an innate human need and drive. Most can restrain themselves from acting out on sexual impulses, but those in a position of power sometimes equate that power with sexual proclivity. Being able to govern really has nothing to do with controlling the basic drive to have sex and to procreate. Fear of being caught and falling from grace, on the other hand, is usually a powerful enough motivator to abstain from extramarital activity. In the case of the people you mention, they compounded their problems by lying about them. Lying to one’s constituency is certainly grounds for not voting for him, but simply having an affair? Can’t get too riled about it.
I agree with all of that. The affair isn’t the crime, it’s how far they go to cover it up.
I can, and I do. It is a significant element of how I make my voting choices. As a strong supporter of President Obama, I have been asked many times what it would take for me to become completely disillusioned with him. My answer has always been, that were he to be caught having an affair, or engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior as exemplified by Weiner, Spitzer and Clinton (a great law firm if you need a defense against a sexual harassment claim) that would be the end for me. Bottom line, I don’t vote for douchebags.
That still falls under “things dick”. It means he’ll lie, in shame, about having been blind about things dick. No more, no less. I remember a US President doing the same a handful years ago (and understanding why he did ;))
He who will pun will pick a pocket maybe, but he who will lie about texting his junk… well, do we have any data on whether he’ll lie about anything else ? Sure, you can say “if he’ll lie about one thing, he’ll lie about anything !”… but that’s just silly thinking and shoddy character assessment. Nobody’s a saint, much less politicians. If I lie a hell of a lot to my parents about my grades, does it mean I’ll cheat on my girlfriend ? If I cheat on my girlfriend, does it mean I’m a tax evader ? Of course not. All those things are unrelated. Compartmentalized (is that a word in English ?)
As I said, he likely has a penis-shaped blind spot in his navigation software. That’s a flaw, fine. But really, it’s neither here nor there regarding his mayorship chops. Unless you can’t bear the thought of city hall flying Little Congressman banners - 'cause that’s in the cards, oh yes.
I think actually having sex with another woman while married is a worse violation of marriage than engaging sexual activities on the internet. That said, Weiner seems to have some serious psychological problems. And, good grief!!! Can’t the DEMS of NYC come up with a better candidate???
Yeah, but denying until the media finds out she saved a dress, wow. I’ll bet Clinton would STILL be denying it today if she hadn’t saved that dress. And that reflects on his other denials of more serious inappropriate behavior that were alleged against him.
How is voting for a pervy mayor different from voting for an obese mayor?
Both are flawed individuals unable to control their baser beings.
Do you believe your approach to this issue is mirrored by a significant number of voters?
Do you expect him to remain in the race?
Do you expect him to win?
Except the obese guy doesn’t lie about being fat.
IMHO this dipshit should be tossed aside by voters of any stripe. I am surprised at people here defending him, or somehow saying it would be OK to vote for him. Those that think he should be in office only because he is on our side are no better than those Red State voters who only vote for the person with an ® next to their name.
We need to have a higher standard.
I got called into work today for a few hours to work on a special project from Marist College. Most of the survey was about the latest revelations regarding Weiner, and whether or not people thought he should drop out of the race.
I got the impression that the whole thing is a pretty major topic of conversation in New York.
I don’t really know. I hope that as time goes on, more and more people will agree with me. Indeed, I have a theory that people will get so exhausted by these kinds of scandals that they will lose the capacity to care about them. I can’t make a prediction, but as an optimist and a believer in the goodness of my fellow humans, I can hope that it will happen.
Eh, I don’t know. David Vitter won re-election. Mark Sanford won his special election. And that was in supposedly conservative regions. Barney Frank survived his own quasi-sex scandal decades ago. One New Yorker I know said that in his opinion if you’re a genuine liberal, then Weiner is the only decent candidate in the race. I think he still leads in some polls at the moment. So, I think Weiner has a shot. Heck, Eliot Spitzer is also leading and he actually broke the law. Why not? As for expectations, I have none.
(Haven’t read the thread.)
His wife, Huma, should have just dumped him after this most recent post-scandal/apology/resignation fuckup, and run for mayor herself. But now with her seemingly boundless forgiveness, she’ll have trouble being seen as “strong” enough for the job.
And there’s nothing wrong with making that assessment. But there’s a difference between you personally not caring, as a bunch of people probably won’t, and saying it’s not the public’s business.
There are a whole bunch of other candidates in the primary race. The Democrats don’t seem to have wanted Weiner to get in the race to start with and they all want him to drop out now.