Is Weiner finished?

[XT]

Figured I’d post there here…it’s Why Anthony Weiner should not resign.

But consider Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer, to take only two of the many, many examples of powerful public men caught in sex scandals (Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Rudy Giuliani, Gary Hart) or not caught, but revealed later (Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller).

I for one am deeply glad that Bill Clinton did not resign; he was one of the best presidents of my lifetime and left the country in far better shape than he found it. His wife and daughter chose to forgive him and to preserve their family, which is their business, not ours. He also breached the public trust by lying, but in my view not to an extent that it affected his ability to govern successfully.

So back to Anthony Weiner. (Full disclosure: I worked daily with Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, from 2009-2011, but only met Weiner once for five minutes.) His is a classic case of hubris – daring the gods and getting caught. May the resulting humiliation and comeuppance make him a better person, a better husband, and a better public servant. How he weathers this crisis and what he is willing to learn and admit from it will tell us a great deal about what he is really made of. But some of the very characteristics that led to this scandal are, properly channeled, the sources of the kind of bold, decisive, even daring action that this country needs from its leaders.

Absent criminal behavior, which is another category entirely, the issue is whether sexual misconduct undermines a politician’s ability to represent his or her constituents and contribute to the common good. It is certainly legitimate for Weiner’s Congressional colleagues to voice their views that the scandal surrounding his actions is harming the party’s agenda as a whole. But it is equally legitimate for him to insist that in the end his fate should be decided by the good citizens of his district. A government of, by, and for the people should let the people decide.

Just thought it was interesting…sort of a different take on the discussion than I’ve seen from most people on this subject. Personally, as I said earlier, if he can take the embarrassment factor then he’s not finished until the voters decide (unless he gets redistricted out of a job I guess). It’s really up to them. The fat lady still hasn’t sung…

-XT

[Gangster_Octopus]

Weiner should not resign, he was elected by his costituents and they should be the ones who ultimately decides if he stays or goes. But in my opinon the guy is a complete moron and ranks pretty low on my respect scale.

[flickster]

Well, Obama publicly stated today that he thought Weiner should resign. In effect a direct hit with a torpedo into the SS Weiner. It would seem political survival at this point is all but over

[JimH52]

@flickster

Well, Obama publicly stated today that he thought Weiner should resign. In effect a direct hit with a torpedo into the SS Weiner. It would seem political survival at this point is all but over

Agreed

[Marley23]

Obama’s statement was a little more nuanced than that, but the gist was that Weiner should quit. What he actually said was that if he were in Weiner’s shoes, he would resign. The difference is that it would be somewhat unseemly for the president to directly tell a Congressman to quit, and maybe this phrasing would be less alienating if Weiner survives all this and Obama needs his support later.

[flickster]

@Marley23

Obama’s statement was a little more nuanced than that, but the gist was that Weiner should quit. What he actually said was that if he were in Weiner’s shoes, he would resign. The difference is that it would be somewhat unseemly for the president to directly tell a Congressman to quit, and maybe this phrasing would be less alienating if Weiner survives all this and Obama needs his support later.

That’s some fine hair-splitting skills on display…

[Marley23]

@flickster

That’s some fine hair-splitting skills on display…

I didn’t dispute that he’s putting pressure on Weiner to leave. I’m pointing out that for the sake of appearances, he did not say he should leave, and there are reasons he phrased it the way he did.

[Xema]

Weiner is clearly a master at inflicting damage on himself: Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Nissan Pathfinder is unregistered, DMV says.

Summary: Weiner has been driving a Nissan Pathfinder with no inspection sticker, a registration sticker dating from 2007, and a long-expired license plate belonging to a Honda he used to own.

[Xema]

@Kobal2

So Patterico’s insinuations were just baseless slime after all.

To the contrary, I think he did a good job of establishing the factual basis for his speculation, distinguishing fact from speculation, and adding details as they came out.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

His speculation was completely baseless.

[Gangster_Octopus]

@Xema

Weiner is clearly a master at inflicting damage on himself: Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Nissan Pathfinder is unregistered, DMV says.

Summary: Weiner has been driving a Nissan Pathfinder with no inspection sticker, a registration sticker dating from 2007, and a long-expired license plate belonging to a Honda he used to own.

THis guy just gets a little slimier everytime I heat about him.

[Marley23]

I don’t think he needs to resign over that either. If this wasn’t obvious already, we’ve now crossed over from “What did Anthony Weiner do?” to “Let’s dig up crap about Anthony Weiner because we’ve committed to this scandal thing, and if he doesn’t resign it’ll be an unsatisfying resolution to the drama.” The fact that he was sexting with a bunch of women and lied about it is relevant insofar as it reflects on his judgment and trustworthiness; there’s no reason anyone should care that he used the word shit while talking to a 17-year-old or that his plates are expired. Tomorrow I expect we’ll hear that he sometimes doesn’t floss after meals, and I don’t think he should quit because of that either.

[ralph124c]

On their hit show “To Catch a Predator”.
I can just see Tony walking in to see a “13 year old” and getting the cuffs slapped on him.
Seems like a fitting end to this affair.

[magellan01]

Boehner just pulled a brilliant move. Evidently, he demanded that Weiner resign. That means that either the Dems have to make it happen or push back against Boehner’s demand and be stuck as defending him in 2012. at first I thought it was a dumb thing to do, but it seems to put the Dems in a corner.

[Marley23]

@ralph124c

On their hit show “To Catch a Predator”.
I can just see Tony walking in to see a “13 year old” and getting the cuffs slapped on him.
Seems like a fitting end to this affair.

:rolleyes: I guess it was inevitable somebody would say something this ridiculous, but I hoped against hope nobody would bother. He’s a cheater and a jerk, not a child molester. I’m sure you can figure out the difference.

[Absolute]

@magellan01

Boehner just pulled a brilliant move. Evidently, he demanded that Weiner resign. That means that either the Dems have to make it happen or push back against Boehner’s demand and be stuck as defending him in 2012. at first I thought it was a dumb thing to do, but it seems to put the Dems in a corner.

I don’t see anything about this online. Did it just happen?

[Marley23]

@Absolute

I don’t see anything about this online. Did it just happen?

From CNN’s political ticker:

When asked Tuesday by reporters whether Weiner should step down, Boehner simply said “yes.”

If that’s all Boehner said, he did not demand Weiner step down or “force” Democrats to do anything. That’d be empty rhetoric, not a brilliant political maneuver.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Bohner denmands a resignation or what? The Dems don’t have to respond to him at all.

There is no way for them to “make it happen.” Democracy doesn’t work that way.

[John_Mace]

@Diogenes_the_Cynic

Bohner denmands a resignation or what? The Dems don’t have to respond to him at all.

There is no way for them to “make it happen.” Democracy doesn’t work that way.

I agree. Boehner can demand all he wants, but unless he’s able to put it up for a vote, no one needs to address his “demand”. Boehner would be stupid to “demand” this, precisely because there is no “or else” he can throw out there.

[Marley23]

And if there was a way for the Democrats to kick him out, they’d have done it already just to have done with it. At this point you have to wonder if their attempts to get rid of him and avoid a big distraction have, in fact, turned into the distraction they were trying to prevent. They could do an investigation, but to me it seems vanishingly unlikely they could do anything other than censure him. If they didn’t kick out William Jefferson when he was caught with all that bribery money in his freezer, they can’t throw out Weiner for maybe taking a picture of himself in the House gym and sending it to a woman he wasn’t married to. It’s embarrassing but nowhere close to criminal.