a case of not wisely picking one's battles

[veronica_rich]

Having read and watched on the whole Anthony Weiner Tweetageddon (Twitterocalypse? Tweetygate?), I have a few thoughts:

1. Weiner is one of more vocal opponents to stupid shit the more radical Republicans propose in Congress. So I am especially pissed off that he lied, and that he put himself in this vulnerable position.

2. Dude. SERIOUSLY. Everybody's fucked up with technology. You accidentally post to Twitter instead of texting and take it down - and say you were hacked? Why not just admit you hit the wrong button, take the jokes on your name, roll your eyes at your own techie incompetence, and let it die? Why lie about something so minor? If you'll lie about that, what else will you lie about? That's the question, sadly.

3. Re: The Republicans asking OMG WHAT IF HE WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR??!111? So what? HE never campaigned on that bullshit "family values" or sexual morality so far as I know. Was HE caught soliciting sex in an airport bathroom? Was HE caught making advances to his 17-year-old intern? Was HE caught preaching against homosexuality and then exposed to be hiring the services of a male prostitute? I think we all need to take a moment of silent contemplation to remember the party to which those three pillars of society belonged. STFU REPUBLICANS.

4. Re: The Democrats haranguing him. As well they should. The Republicans sure as hell don't have a good track record of policing their own; I'm actually kind of glad to see the Dems are doing it.

5. Should Weiner resign? I don't know. The offense with the photos was no big deal, as far as I'm concerned; if his wife wants to beat on his ass, that's her prerogative, not anyone else's. It's the LYING that grates at me. (The only reason I usually ever care if some right-winger gets himself strung up in a personal scandal is if he's one of those jackasses who gets into office on sexual morals. PUH-LEEZE bitch.)

5a. Poor Jon Stewart. I feel sorry for the guy, having to make fun of his friend like he would anyone else. But - hey, he did it. He didn't have to. He's a comedian, not a journalist; it's not central to his career to be of high character. Good on him.

6. John Edwards. There was a time I would've voted for you. Ugh. YOU, I dislike personally, whether the criminal charges pan out or not. You don't cheat on a sick spouse, and you don't sleep around on a dying spouse unless you have worked out between the two of you some sort of agreement where this is going to happen (yes, I knew a couple who did this, actually. The whole town knew them).

Comments

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

I giggle every time I write or say "Weiner scandal."

But seriously, I don't begrudge him the lie. He panicked. I probably would have, too. Shit, I panic NOW if I think I've accidentally posted something private to the whole wide world. And my internet fame is not nearly so far reaching.

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

It's been....jaw-dropping to watch this cat torpedo his career. I think he should resign, slink away and hope he can live out his life with a modicum of dignity. (I guess he would need to learn "dignity".)

[captsparrow4evr.livejournal.com]

I watched him several times on Daily Show and he always impressed me as being a good guy, perhaps even potential presidential material. I don't want him to resign. I think he's valuable to us liberals but the Republicans are not going to let it go. Gah, why did he listen to the wrong head? Idiot!!

[crevette.livejournal.com]

Well, you know I'm more middle of the road, but I'm so saddened that this guy was a hugely vocal supporter of women's rights and he's basically shot himself in the foot.

My issues:

1) People say that the adultery/cheating episodes doesn't matter, but if a person cannot keep a promise to the one person in his life he's supposed to above all others, how can you trust anything he does?

2) the lies. Stupid stupid lies. Although all politicians lie, he stupidly lied and then kept lying until he was forced to be honest.

3) the entire thing shows a striking lack of judgement and I'm unsure if someone who cannot figure out that sending pictures of your junk on THE INTERNET is a bad idea is really cut out for making decisions about the economy/defense etc of a country.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

I think he's toast as a Congressman. He might find another line of work. Look at Elliot Spitzer? That still blows me away, but he seems to be working it like no one's business.

The second worst fight of my marriage was over John Edwards. I thought that a man who would do that to his dying wife was capable of more more egregious crimes. And, as it turns out, I was right. I think there are moral lines in the sand that once you cross them, you've crossed a Rubincon that changes your way of thinking permanently. That all of a sudden things that were written in stone are now written in pencil. I think that Edwards cheating on his dying wife and not even bothering to put a frigging condom on while banging his mistress is absolutely disgusting.

It's Weinergate

[keechakatt.livejournal.com]

The guy just digs a deeper hole every day. Now he plays the sympathy card that is wife is pregnant. That makes his actions even more disgusting. Now if she was totally in on what he was tweeting, what goes on between consenting adults and all that.

The amount of denial that went into all of this I highly doubt she knew. I like many others don't care what he did as long as it was on his own time. From what it sounds like some of it was, and some of it wasn't.

I'm just annoyed that he lied about it, not once but many times. It just makes everything else he does suspect.

Now I don't think he is at John Edwards level of scum. Edwards lied, and denied his child, and then tried to cover it up. I would never believe anything Edwards had to say again politically. But who knows what else Weiner is hiding.

[bonnie-halfelvn.livejournal.com]

1 and 3. This.

I put up Colbert's take on this when it first came out (when he was denying it), then I moved on. I mean, honestly, there's a big difference to me between lying about this vs. lying about weapons in Iraq. Or espousing family values while cheating on your third wife. Or voting against gays while trying to solicit a transgender prostitute.

Clinton stayed in office. JFK - if Twitter had been around when he was President? Oy.

I think he's the scapegoat they're all using to hide their own sins.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

Word.