The Honorable Anthony Weiner

It does bring to mind one other thing – we need to pray for our leaders.

As leaders, I think they will be under greater attack, more so because the USA is a democratic leader – how better to discredit all of the USA than to discredit Her leaders?

Pray they receive wisdom and protection – for the good of us all.

See the previous post on power and how for the powerful (or faux powerful like Weiner) the rules don’t apply. This is a sterling example of the hubris and arrogance of the political class. I’m surprised the student who received the tweet hasn’t filed a harassment suit.

Like SKP said, it does call back to mind the post about arrogant hubris of the power class. There’s no denying that’s a part of this. However, I continue to maintain that even these guys are just a slice of society. Out of a pool of 535, you have to expect at least a few knuckleheaded moves. Weiner simply did what anyone else who got caught would likely do, he denied it and went SODDI (some other dude did it). Only, because of his position, Weiner had to do it on camera, and not in the police interrogation room or the courtroom. So, I think this is a reflection on our society and the abuse of technology. If Weiner is doing this, you know it is rampant in the rest of society. Imagine what it is doing to families. I imagine the kitchen conversation he had with his wife was pretty much the same as any other guy would have.

I think the widespread news coverage of this episode just exposes the ignorance of America. We have several wars, debt problems, health care problems, terrorism problems, and this is getting as much news coverage. This sort of reporting ought to be something that you have to look on a high school blog to find. What I find the most interesting is that there are a lot of Americans who wouldn’t vote for a guy just because of this episode, yet they will vote for someone who has a different view on something like war, where people are going to die.

I watched some of his press conference on C-Span. What struck me is his effort to distinguish, entirely, his behavior in his “personal life” from his role as a public servant. I found this to be the most disturbing thing about his comments.

Interesting to me is the thoroughly post-modern approach to ethics. What was the great “sin” that he “confessed” to?

“I have not been honest with myself,” Weiner said at a press conference in New York City Monday afternoon

Now that there are no real standards to sin against, the only sin we can really be guilty of is hypocrisy. Lying or dodging his constituents is not a problem, but lying to himself is the serious offense.

The sex drive is powerful. That’s an old story. What’s interesting is the way technology has made it possible for the sex drive to become overwhelmingly powerful – for many more people – because it’s made gratification easy and instantaneous.

What surprises me is that we expect our elected reps to act any differently than the guy next door. I have been disabused of this notion for some time now.

I don’t know exactly how Rep. Weiner grew up, but I think that even pro-choice, or even pro-abortion people, ought to admit that you’ve got to wonder what is up when a man (a) doesn’t find a wife until he’s 44 and (b) achieves a 100% rating from NARAL.

For some, this still won’t matter, but for me, it suggests where he’s coming from, and it suggests that our media season of revulsion is nowhere near over, and he may be praying that Huma doesn’t take lessons from Susan Armey.

I saw an article on the Daily Kos that claimed Weiner was set up by a ‘Christian info war cell’ and had some tweet threads that supposedly proved these Christians had hacked his twitter account.

Hmm.. Where is their ‘Christian info war cell’ now?

@5

This same distinction between ‘personal life’ and life as a ‘public servant’ is often made by Christian pastors too–though it might be difficult for pastors to acknowledge. For that matter, how many Christians separate their ‘witness’ from their ‘personal life.’ Theology of vocation should help resolve this false distinction, but I am not sure it is understood well enough.

+1 Jeremy @4.
For me the lie “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman” will never trouble me as much as “Our involvement in Iraq will be a matter of weeks, not months”.

Maybe Weiner will want to resign (or avoid his wife for a decade or so) after she reads the X-rated transcripts of Facebook conversations between Weiner (did you know he was a Democrat?) and Las Vegas Blackjack dealer Lisa Weiss.

OTOH, what’s Weiner done that Monica’s ex-boyfriend (or one of the Kennedys) hasn’t already gotten away with?

Maybe he can replace Biden as VP nominee in 2012 (as impeachment insurance for Steve Dunham).

Jon – And don’t forget we will be involved in Libya for “days, not weeks.” Here we are months later. And we’re still in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I think a few years ago I would have quickly dismissed Rep. Weiner as a pervert who deserved no second chance because of his actions. Since then, I’ve personally known a good man who fell to similar temptations, and now I can’t help but feel sympathy and sadness for Rep. Weiner as he clearly struggles with the same wickedness as the rest of us. I can say with confidence that Rep. Weiner’s lewd actions do not disqualify him from his office in my eyes or in God’s, considering that David was guilty of even more heinous sins yet was allowed to continue serving God and Israel as king.
What troubles me most about Rep. Weiner’s story is how he dealt with his sins after confronted. A week of denial and lighthearted jokes is a far cry from a heartfelt confession (cf. Psalm 51). Of course, Rep. Weiner’s accusers hardly acted with the love and authority that David’s pastor demonstrated. Breitbart’s self-righteous “gotcha” attitude particularly disgusts me.
In light of Rep. Weiner’s lies, I think he should resign. His treatment of the truth speaks to his character more than his actions, which speak to our fallen human nature.

The broader question is: how do we (re) integrate a sense of ethical behavior into our public service? Only then is the title “Honorable” appropriate.

It is all but impossible that one could integrate a sense of ethical behavior into Democrat politicians (they are the antithesis of ethical behavior). They need to be voted out of public office, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced as appropriate for lying, genocidal murdering traitors.

Does anyone know if the clymer media is working to gain the FOI release of Weiner’s emails like they slavered over efforts to get Sarah Palin’s emails?

On a stroll through his NYC district, Anthony Weiner is cheered by his politically scum-of-the-earth constituents.

Carl, please stop with the ridiculous name-calling. “Lying, genocidal murdering traitors”? “Politically scum-of-the-earth constituents”? Give me a break. (And thanks for putting “politically” in there. For a second, I thought you considered yourself supremely better than them in general.)

Seriously, you can’t say the media is letting him off easy. How many weak stories are they going to keep running about the poor man? I’ve read too many headlines today about how he sent private messages to a 17-year-old girl (in the second paragraph you find out nothing inappropriate transpired). And how long did they drag the whole “certitude” story around? Sure his statements were odd and the doubters ended up being right, but I am really tired of the bizarre speculation that’s been floating around this story.

Oh, dear, nqb. I need to apologize to any honorable, decent, church-going, America-loving scum of the earth for the insult of comparing them to the hull-crushing-abyss-of-depravity, flat-lining, traitorous NYC constituents who voted for and continue to support their low-life, lying pervert of a Congressman.

In addition to the NY Congressman’s’s continuing weiner woes it now seems that his 1988 Nissan Pathfinder, used to flee Capitol Hill reporters, lacks an inspection sticker, has an expired registation sticker, and the car’s New York license plate expired in 2006 and doesn’t even belong to that car, but to another Weiner car, a Honda.

But don’t expect anything to happen over it. Weiner switching license plates is like Barry Ozero switching social security numbers.

Now that he seems to have joined the GLBTQ gaggle, Weiner has a “protected haven” from being forced to resign. Weiner may have gotten that tip from another Demonrat wacko.

So much for not being base and degrading. Is there a way to stop getting notifications about comments?

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite NY Post front page Weiner headline.

The June 14th headline seems to be ahead so far.

From a Freerepublic column, “Wiener’s Resignation, the Real Reason“:

What was the final event that sprang upon Anthony Weiner his Epiphany: his days were over as a US House of Representatives E-flasher of unsuspecting American girls? When did the fog of surrealism finally clear from his twisted, addle pated, twisted–did I once already say, “twisted”? True that, ‘twas twice twisted– brain?….

It was an unlikely heroine who stood before the world’s cameras and accused a US Representative of suborning perjury, whereupon he within a matter of hours tapped out. With the infamous lawyer, Gloria Allred, at her side, it was a inglorious Porn star who flattened the pervert… KOed by a PORN STAR.