From TPM. This story points out the Weiner was being consciously put forward by the Dems as a Party leader. It claims that promoting new fresh faces was part of the deal with keeping Pelosi as the Majority Leader. That makes sense. It also makes sense about why the Party reacted so swiftly against Weiner--because he was a de facto spokesperson for the Party.
What I don't get is how a guy in that position, being groomed to perhaps be a very powerful person in the House, decides to start taking pictures of his cock and sending them around. What the fuck. I mean, seriously.
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Heard smart people today theorizing that some politicians wake up from years of head-down campaigning to realize they are not up the job, then shrink from it and subconsciously do stupid, crazy things so they get caught and go down. Then they went down by being sex addicts, not because they weren't smart enough to do the job.
Interesting theory.
You are a member of a party that will hound you out of office for not breaking the law, but will defend you to the hilt for stealing money.
This is one of those days in which I am ashamed of the democrats. Which is to say, it's a Thursday.
Regardless of the merits of forcing the resignation, it's terrible politics. Both for the bizarre double standard Matt cited, which is completely accurate, but also for the fact that the more you knuckle under to this sort of pressure, the more it is expected and the more encouragement it gives to your enemies.
When Scooter Libby/Gonzales/Rove/Cheney were accused of wrongdoing, there was no question whether they would resign. They're republicans -- tough bastards. not gonna happen. Vitter didn't resign. Larry Craig didn't resign. Ensign didn't resign until he was about to be indicted. Tom Daschle pulled out of the HHS nomination because he had a chauffeur or something like that. Now Wiener is gone for dumb/gross but hardly illicit behavior, thrown out by his own party. ACORN is gone, NPR's CEO was fired, both over faux controversies. Shirley Sherrod was fired before the day was out, before her boss had even seen the full (exonerating) unedited video.
The message to partisans on both sides and to members of the media? You can call for a republican to resign all you like but it's wasted breath and hardly worth reporting. But you can successfully hound democrats from office if you ratchet up the outrage high enough. So make a fuss, scream and yell, front page it and democrats will reliably knuckle under.
The Dems/liberals don't get it: DONT FEED THE BEARS.
And yes, there are plenty of counterfactuals (Rep Chris Lee, Rangel) but the narrative is out there, and we are going to see more and more of these gotcha investigations so long as dems respond in this weak-assed predictable defensive crouch.
None of this is to defend Weiner, but just a criticism of Pelosi et al.
Kill me, please.
He's as fallible as anybody else, and under so much more scrutiny. That's how he could do it.
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