The content of a man's character dictates what he does when no one is watching.

[cherokeeprogressive]

Mr. Weiner might be a character, but as a personality trait I find his character lacking, and yes, I say so because he so blatantly and loudly lied to the press, Americans in general, and the world. Repeatedly and forcefully, if not with a mean kind of smarminess. Had he not been caught, I for one don't think we'd be hearing about him and his "problem" until he did get caught redhanded, then we'd be hearing exactly what we're hearing now... I have a problem that needs attention. I'd also go out on a limb and say my guess is that this group of women isn't the extent of his online connections. It's just what he'll admit to until he's cornered once more. And it makes me sad.

I get so damn tired of the vitter? vitter... VITTER! defense it makes me want to puke. Have we such low self-respect that we'll use the bad acts of an avowed enemy to excuse the bad acts of one of our own? It sure seems so.

My advice would be for Mr. Weiner to resign his seat in the House, successfully complete whatever treatment is deemed necessary, and then begin anew as the Mayor of NYC. There he can rehabilitate his image and begin once more his climb up whatever political ladder he saw himself on.

In the meantime, he ceases to place the Party and the Administration in any kind of jeopardy of a backlash of some sort.

Oh and of course my subject line is posted with apologies and All Due Respect to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

[canoeist52]

1. Which is the reason why we need surviellance cameras in every bathroom.

[seabeyond]

2. such a low bar of expectation. i used this once again, as a lesson and insight for my boys

expectation is not reaching the lowest of who we are, but the best of who we are

and that is not referring to perfection as my kids are well aware. we are a society taht expects the very least and inevitably, that is what we will receive

[panader0]

3. I could have sworn I was alone.

I even had the drapes pulled.........

[bluerum]

4. That and an alcoholic beverage.

[Sky Masterson]

5. What gives the press the right to know every action a person

does that doesn't effect his job? So he lied to the press. The most important lie he told was to his wife and she is the only one who deserves an answer in this

[Vinee]

9. a congressman isn't just a person. If they're up to no good, we have a right to know.

[Sky Masterson]

11. So if the press thinks something is "no good" it's ok.

Who decides what is no good anyways..
I'm not saying what he did was right. I'm just saying that press isn't entitled to know everything.

[Vinee]

21. Congressmen aren't entitled to keep secrets as far as I'm concerned and the press houldn't let them.

Wiener showed extremely poor judgment. This is newsworthy and he was definitely up to no good. He further exacerbated his quandary by lying about it as he did which made it even more newsworthy. let me re-emphasize this: he showed EXTREMELY. POOR. JUDGMENT especially for a congressman. The press was absolutely justified in reporting it. The people had a right to know about it. He fucked up. end of story.

[Raine]

34. Isn't it society that decides and the press that

reports on what society as a whole finds unacceptable.

[cherokeeprogressive]

If the argument is that this is a private matter, or part of his private life

I would respectfully submit my belief that his private life and privacy in general extend no further than the entrance to whichever Congressional Office Building he is assigned to.

Once he goes through those doors, every action he takes should be transparent and open to scrutiny. At home, I couldn't care less, but once he's acting in his capacity as a Representative and in that building, which belongs to The People, the privacy argument is moot in my mind.

[aquart]

15. So you ARE in favor of cameras in Congressional bathrooms?

And let's not forget taping systems like Nixon had.

[cherokeeprogressive]

19. I'm absolutely stumped as to why you think I would want cameras in bathrooms..

but ya know what? Fuck yes I like the notion of recording conversations ala Nixon. I'd remind you that his tapes didn't make anyone look bad or damage the reputations of anyone but Nixon and his fellow criminals.

[aquart]

22. Then I have no idea why you'd leave out the bathrooms.

Or maybe you just want audio in there?

[Vinee]

23. what if he was trading child pornography from home? Would you care about that?

Their right to privacy doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned. They have no right to keep ANY secrets from us whatsoever at all.

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. Pretty sure you already know the answer to that question.

I don't want to know what goes on inside his house that isn't criminal.

[aquart]

39. How do you plan to find out?

[woo me with science]

6. Now, now. He is getting therapy.

This is nothing that some intensive journaling, weeping, and unrepressing of childhood traumas won't solve.

:hurts:

[Vinee]

7. discipline: doing the right thing even when nobody is watching you.

The definition of discipline according to my drill instructor. Don't argue with him or he'll make you duck walk until your feet bleed.

[RandomThoughts]

8. If he has done worse, then that should be why he is removed.

And the same standards should be used in society.

Including those that are lying for selling this or that for luxury profits.


You don't understand at all, he might be being removed for some good reason, who knows, but that should be the reason, not smear out of perspective using extra judicial means, and targeted justice.



In the totality of it, it is as much about society as him, since they admonish him becuase of the same ideas in there mind that shame them and get them to strike at other people so they can go after the knife in there mind, but disassociate it to someone else.

And it is a pretty good trip wire, becuase people are to obsessed with smear, and using that to control society.



But anyways, the point is, that I am literally due beer and travel money and that has not yet arrived. And any correlation with other ideas, well you can make some guess about that, I am talking about being literally due beer and travel money, and the world being more just and compassionate.

Dire Straits - Your Latest Trick + lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YTh1Wsqo2c


There really seems to be lots of deception and hypocrisy occurring, and I am due beer and travel money, and many experiences.

Constantine - Bring me to life (Evanescence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8d3K_hngw


Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5JkHBC5lDs

Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Cu6GYqxo

Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=407128

Dire Straits - Walk of Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZxVC0GB838

[madinmaryland]

10. I take exception to your vitter comment. Myself and a lot of other here on DU are

concerned that the torrential media attention to Rep. Weiner who has done nothing illegal, while the whole vitter affair (which actually did involve illegalities) was barely a blip on the radar of the M$M.

That is my anger.

Oh, and Rep. Weiner has NEVER, NEVER campaigned on or for any type of "family values" legislation. In other words while Weiner may have lied to us, he is NOT a HYPOCRIT or a CRIMINAL.

[Little Star]

12. Good post! A person's character matters. n/t k&r

[GodlessBiker]

13. He should say, "He who is without horniness, cast the first stone."

I have no problem with him (or me or anyone) lying about personal sexual matters which involve no criminality.

[cherokeeprogressive]

16. Here it is in a nutshell for me...

"Personal sexual matters" have no business being addressed in a Congressional Office Building by a member of the House of Representatives while he's supposed to be acting in an official capacity and conducting the Business of the People. To summon members of the press to an office in that building for the purpose of telling lies and obfuscating facts while there in an official capacity places a magnifying glass over whatever bad act might have taken place and makes it seem magnitudes worse than it already is.

Inside those buildings I expect transparency and welcomed scrutiny, and I don't mind saying as much.

[GodlessBiker]

20. Fair enough, but that's all most politicians do in those buildings, obfuscate facts.

These facts were about sex. Other politicians lie about and obfuscate other facts. To tell you the truth, from my point of view, what Wiener did was not as bad as what a Mitch McConnell does every day of his life in those buildings.

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. This goes back to my point about justifying bad acts by pointing to those of others.

I'm not okay with that.

Maybe that's because I remember once as a kid screaming "But Johnny does it too!" as I was about to get punished for something I did wrong. I got a couple of licks in Johnny's name that day.

I feel like we all have valid points and will just have to agree to respectfully disagree on this one.

[GodlessBiker]

25. I'm okay with that. It's called selective prosecution. It's a legitimate legal defense.

If you are the only kid in the classroom who gets punished for something others do who do not get punished, there is something wrong with that.

[JoePhilly]

30. As an example ... you can lie about "Death Panels" and no one demands you resign.

But lie about your personal sex life (at topic we on the left claim is "none of our business"), and everyone demands you resign.

[aquart]

14. But MLK jr was a multiple adulterer.

We know that the same way we know about Weiner BECAUSE SOMEBODY WAS LOOKING. But King gets a pass because his assassination was literal?

And you know what? In those legal conversations he had with adult women not his wife? WEINER WAS STILL A LIBERAL!

So when he thought no one was looking, he still believed everything his constituents voted for him for.

[mrcheerful]

28. Then theres the historical aspect of how sex scandals were never a big deal for anyone until 1984

when Gary Hart lost his chance at running against Reagan because of his affair, up until that point what people did behind closed doors was their business. BTW, where did this crap about JFK affairs were kept secret come from? I remember it differently as most people knew JFK was a womanizer at the time and they still elected him. Same with his brother Ted, the only ones who made a big deal out of his accident were the people who weren't going to vote for him even if he had walked on water and the accident would have never happened. I see these attacks on Weiner as nothing more then the country being shoved to the right since Reagan and even so called liberals/progressives spewing moral crap instead of looking at what the man is doing to help the working class. It isn't like Weiner said he was for working Americans and then fighting to take away workers rights, like the so called moral people do.

Where are they headed with this crap? Purity oaths for elected public servants? Honesty oaths to stop politicians from lying? Screw that haven't We The People suffered enough loss of personal liberties as it is? Where is this leading us as a country to? I am glad that I'm not younger then I am, I won't have to live in the type of country that the US is becoming. It doesn't matter what excuses people are using to attack Weiner the bottom line is they are letting the GOP dictate how we should treat one of our own yet again the GOP don't apply the same rules against their own. I for one am not letting the GOP tell me whats right or wrong, by putting this Weinergate crap out there that is exactly whats happening, because look at who is behind the damn mess.

[aquart]

38. Yup. Stampeding hysteria.

By the time the witches are all extra crispy and the mob has begun to realize its colossal stupidity, it will be way too late.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Ergo, when Bill Clinton was caught he should have immediately resigned.

Is that correct?

[GodlessBiker]

27. I tried that on another thread. It seems presidents are allowed to do things with their peters,...

and lie about it, that mere representatives are not allowed to do.

[JAnthony]

32. That would have been a good result for all of us for the next few years, we

would have elected Gore, he would not have allowed 9/11 to happen, no war in Iraq, Afghanistan.

Think of the possibilities! A balanced budget, progressive environmental policies, equality for gays and lesbians nationwide, national health insurance that costs less than any private policy.

Clinton should have left office, immediately.

[Liberal Veteran]

33. One would hope. But that's a what-if game.

We don't know how the future would have really unfolded had Clinton packed up and left, but I do know that a lot of people who are in a tizzy about Anthony Weiner were silent about Clinton.

[JAnthony]

35. I am silent about either. No one person should hold the

fate of the world,in one's hands, literally, nor what the world has endured in the last 12 years after Clinton failed to resign.

We all have shared in the tragic loss from Clinton's lies. Let's not worsen this with Anthony screwing over our chances in 2012.

[pintobean]

18. Another excellent post

by cherokeeprogressive.

[PufPuf23]

29. Character matters. Otherwise your claim is wrong and neutral.

We have people that brag and get fame/infame rushes and maintain admiration and power and visability - perhap's Hitler, Cheney, Stalin, GWB - that have nothing to do with character.

There are many that spend too much time at DU (include myself though not a prolific posters) or on the internet in general or just a a lazy and defeated escapist after of decades of execizing character over action and association(s) resuolting social and material harm and less personal security.

But still drawn to DU and this cyber-world.

Bill Clinton, FDR, JFK, MLK, and others (mostly GOP weirdo hypocrites) have survived similar or worse sexual scandals.

I don't "get" nor approve of Rep Weiner's kink or know/understand the full extent much less "truth".

I don't like how the media and Democratic Party leadership have handled the situation.

What is your opinion of the Cobell vs Salazar settlement?

[tularetom]

31. Unfortunately, for the majority of Americans "character" is a quaint anachronism

And definitely a liability in current political skirmishes.

Whether you like it or not, it appears that the trait that the American people most admire is the ability to kick your opponent in the nuts when he's down.

Weiner, I believe, possesses that trait. In spite of his obvious liabilities it'd be a shame to lose him.

[Raine]

36. Excellent post. nt

:thumbsup:

[Baby Bear]

37. Weiner Lied

About things that are none of our business.

Stop whipping this dead horse. It was all consensual.

[ljm2002]

40. Um, with all due respect...

...Martin Luther King was himself a serial adulterer.

[CreekDog]

41. then you can't judge Weiner by that

because someone was watching, in fact, i think that was the whole point.

:rofl:

[Warren DeMontague]

42. Why don't we see people calling for the Pope to resign & go to rehab?

He helped child molesters escape justice. Actually, he should be in jail.

Weiner, by any definition, didn't break any laws, didn't abuse any kids. Oh, I know the god-bags would like to have a sex-free world, or barring that one where everyone does it in missionary style in the context of a Christ-centric marriage, but that's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN GIVEN THE REALITY OF THE HUMAN ANIMAL.

Unless AW broke a law, he should NOT resign. And being a bad husband may mean divorce, but it's not cause for 'treatment'. :eyes: