Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Speaking of Weiner

I think it was Salon's Glenn Greenwald who talked about all of the pearl clutching that is going on in political media related to the Rep. Anthony Weiner story, and I have to agree that there is a great deal of silly pearl clutching going on indeed.  Have you heard Chris Matthews talk about the sitch?  You would think that Weiner had been caught in a bestiality scandal, instead of engaging, essentially, in sex chat and picture sharing.  It's good to remember that this what Weiner did (unless the ethics probe suggests otherwise) was neither illegal or done on company time.  And do we need to open up Pandora's box regarding suggestive conversations that almost anyone in a relationship has over the phone, during work hours or online?  I also think Andrew Sullivan's point about "American puritanism" is well taken.  Actually, it's tiresome.

I've likely said it on this blog before, so I will say it again:  It bothers me that our society is perfectly comfortable with violence and violent depictions in our entertainment, but goes ape shit over sex or sexual images.  It's fucking crazy. 

With all of that said, it doesn't excuse the stupidity of Weiner.  I mean really, dude?  And especially after the whole Chris Lee thing, one would think that everyone on the Hill who is getting his/her online groove on would think twice about continuing.  Weiner's narcissism and sense of self importance got the best of him, and he is paying the price.  And because this is a story that could continue through the summer, I would think that the Democrats would move to have Weiner resign, if only to save themselves from having the narrative move from the attack on Medicare/Medicaid by the GOP to an obsession on Weiner's dick.

3 comments:

Macallan said...

The GOP is not the only group obsessed with Little Smokey. The media is just as obsessed as are memebers of the Democrat party. As far as not being done on company time you are taking the word of a confessed liar who doesn't want to leave office and is willing to put his wife through this constant drip, drip, of photos and text messages. Anyone who thought that this was over with his confession was delusional. A narcisist, which is what Little Smokey is will never see their mistakes as anything other than poor judgement at the time. Move on nothing happening hear. His outragous lies and belitteling of the press for asking questions are enough for me to say he should resign. I know we all know that politicians lie. Little Smokey makes the others look like kids telling lies to their parents when the get caught eating cookies before their dinner. The man truely has a serious emotional problem that requires therapy. Good luck convincing him of this.

Anonymous said...

As far as we know, Weiner has committed no crime. What he is guilty of is "lusting in his heart" like Jimmy Carter, only with much better technology. The true crime here is the Media Circus and the Political Posturing when we have so many much more serious national and global problems to be addressed. The rich of our oligarchy must laugh when we let ourselves be distracted so.
WBP

Anonymous said...

What transpired was cyber-sex between consenting adults with NO employment related pressure to perform, and no money changing hands. The other politicians broke laws and were not held anywhere near to this level of media scrutiny (think Marth Stewart versus the Enron egotists - had she only crafted herself a penis, she would have received far less media attention).

What is happening here is unbridled Christian condecension and the flaunting of moral superiority by groups which are furthest from a place to hold such views.

With homosexuality gaining equal footing, someone has to the bogey man, the pervert, the lesser being. In this case it's again select married men, namely liberals. Married conservatives get a pass, in hopes that media scrutiny will die down and they can keep one of their own in place.

Cyber-adultry is NOT a publicly punishable crime.

I'm just sayin'...