WEINER GETS OUT

Weiner’s decision to leave office is unfortunate. The most  important reason is that we do not yet know whether this \"scandal\" was pushed forward as part of a right wing sting. There is strong evidence to consider that a possibility,  but, with his resignation, there is much less chance that we will ever learn the truth. If it were generally  known that this situation probably was the result of a right wing sting, the attitudes of Democrats and many others would change immediately.  Now, we won't ever get the facts, in all likelihood.

The prime  support for the idea that it was a right wing sting was put forth last  week in an excellent report in the NY Times on "Dan Wolfe" a person who was following Weiner's Tweets and contacting women who were being followed by Wiener on Twitter. (See the article below by scrolling down.) The mysterious "Wolfe" was Tweeting at  least a month and a half ago that Weiner would likely be caught in a  sexual scandal. Did he make it happen? We do know that the path of the  first photograph into the hands of a right wing blogger evidently  involved this unknown person.

The strange aspect of Weiner's behavior (it is not, apparently, as uncommon as people would like to  believe) makes it difficult for anyone to defend him. Indeed, attacking  him is the easy course. Yet, every human being on earth with a normal sexual drive (it is called "drive" for a reason) must find the means  to manage and control those impulses in socially acceptable ways. To  pretend otherwise is to deny an important part of our lives and our  humanity. We lose something important when we put ourselves above the struggles and difficulties of others.

Weiner failed, spectacularly, to manage his impulses properly and acted out in a foolish and childish way. Does that make him unfit to serve in Congress? I suspect he would have been a better man, and a better public servant, for surviving this huge embarrassment and learning from it.

We are now establishing as standard procedure that any deviation from the  accepted norm means someone must go, immediately. This will only  encourage background warfare in the extra-political realm as outside influence groups pour more millions into finding and exposing everything about the lives of Members of Congress.  This is a typical rush to judgment that has become the norm in the age of the Internet and 24/7 cable news. In the process, we have \"solved\" the problem  of one Congressman who sent photos of himself to women, but we are creating much larger and more dangerous problems in the process. Not good.

(more on this subject, click here)

Doug Terry 6.16.11

Many dangers in driving Weiner from office

In the 1950s, people were driven from office and shamed generally if  they had once had a neighbor who might have been sympathetic to communism. In the process, lives were ruined, careers ended, brilliant  contributions to our society were ended. The communist witch hunt came  close to ending freedom and democracy as a lone, self appointed  protector of the world, J. Edgar Hoover, amassed power by becoming the  chief communist hunter in America, along with Senator Joseph McCarthy.  In turn, Hoover intimidated presidents and ripped the Constitution to  shreds.

We are in a different phase of self destruction now. The Republicans, seeking a means of revenge against Democrats and a way to win back the White House, spent more than eight years trying to destroy  the presidency of Bill Clinton. What seems to have happened with Weiner, and others of late, is simply this: make enough noise, keep the noise going for a good while and the target will have to leave office in  shame. We are getting repeated sex scandals, involving those not in public office as well, all pushed forward by partisan, entertainment and rumor media.

This is not to say that some, including Weiner, have not done things to merit public disapproval. Where, I ask, is this going to end? It is not wrong for the public to expect, to hope, that  their elected representatives will conduct themselves with decency and respect for others. When they violate those standards, there is a way of turning them out of office, the ballot box at the next election. This also allows time for new facts to emerge and for full consideration of the events.

The Republicans are currently hosting a  presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, with a notorious reputation for disrespecting his marriages and, according to a documentary in the 1990s on Frontline on PBS, an earlier habit of semi-public sexual encounters. Where is the standard of conduct? It seems to be this: don't get caught and, whatever happens, don't ever take any pictures. It is entirely possible that Gingrich would not have survived had his actions been taken later, in the age of the Internet. As it was, the major media allowed him a free pass when he was driven from the Speakership of the House, in part, as a direct result of his on-going affair with a woman in her 20s who now is his third wife.

There is no standard for what is acceptable behavior and what is over the line. The whole idea of standards has been blown away. Now, the problem revolves around what someone gets caught doing and how the public reacts. The Democratic \"leadership\" in Congress simply  wishes to flush away this problem and deny or obscure the fact that  deviation from the accepted norm is a fact of life in Washington, DC and throughout the nation. They are pretending to be morally superior and  one can only hope that, perhaps, this is truth rather than lie used to  cover up fact.

Doug Terry 6.16.11

Wiener in a picture from his official website, 46 years old, he still has enough youthful appearance in his face that some younger women were apparently attracted to him and, from all  indications, he went looking.

THIS IS BIG, but not enough facts are known now to say how big. There is a clear appearance that the Weiner-gate mess might have been developed, pushed forward, by a right wing sting operation. We might never get enough facts to actually reach this conclusion, but it has to be considered as a possibility based on a report in today’s NY Times (6.7.11). Here is a short clip from that story:

 Calling themselves the #bornfreecrew on Twitter, members of the group closely monitored those whom Mr. Weiner was following, taking it upon themselves to contact young women they believed to be “schoolgirls”, and urging them publicly to stay away from him, according to an analysis of posts on Twitter’s public stream.

 By early May, members of the group were also speculating that Mr. Weiner would be caught in a sex scandal