Good lord…talk about bad optics. Weiner must think that the private firm he hired to “investigate” the hacking/prank/? is going to clean this whole thing up for him. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
But, as Ace notes – it’s getting harder and harder for anyone with a brain to believe him.
I think people are freaking out because he’s so obviously guilty that people are starting to think, “No one can be thisguilty. Even Charles Manson is less guilty than this. I’m being set up. This is some big master scheme to draw us all in.”
Relax. He’s not that smart, either.
He looks guilty because he’s guilty.
He acts guilty because he’s guilty.
He talks guilty because he’s guilty.
He doesn’t call the cops on the hackers because he’s guilty.
He calls the cops on reporters because he’s guilty.
He doesn’t deny the picture is his because he’s guilty.
This is not complicated. This is not Twin Peaks.
Indeed, even Tingles isn’t buying Weiner’s “Strange” stories, and his “juvenile behavior” is embarrassing Dems
CNN’s Jack Cafferty is asking Can Weiner survive this scandal?
Apparently oblivious to shame and embarrassment, the Kos Kiddies, Charles Johnson and a handful of anonymous basement dwellers are the only ones left spinning the absurd “He wuz Hack3d!” narrative…. which believe it or not, now involves Clarance Thomas.
These are the particulars of the latest event, but look at the big picture. We see a steady flow of similar crimes – illegal taping, attempts to tap a Senator’s phone, now intrusion into a Congressman’s social media profiles, and the one thing in common? Andrew Breitbart, who is operating a continuing criminal enterprise as defined by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act aka RICO.
And now this gang, this conservative media mafia, has done a hit on a U.S. Congressman, and it’s one carefully timed to protect corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from scrutiny, and the timing of the delivery was flawless. Congressman Wiener would be all over accountability for Thomas, except that @DanaBashCNN and @RandiKayeCNN are all over … dare I say it? They’re On. His. Dick.
This conservative crime wave isn’t going to just go away. As we’ve seen with Anthony Weiner, any individual who troubles them, even if that person by a United States Congressman, is going to get whacked.
We really need a way inside this thing…
No, that was not satire.
The Hayride explored the gross double standard that is always at play whenever there’s a political sex scandal:
..let’s remember that the NY-26 race the Democrats have established as some sort of referendum on the Ryan plan came open because a Republican congressman sent a picture of his naked torso – not his private parts – to some woman not his wife over the internet. Of course, Chris Lee has some shame and he decided to beg out of public life as a result. Which is what disgraced Republican politicians – or at least a good portion of them – do.
Weiner isn’t going to resign. Charlie Rangel didn’t, Barney Frank hasn’t, Maxine Waters refuses to, Bill Clinton certainly didn’t. Democrats plow right through their scandals, whether sexual or otherwise.
And of course, this brings up the age-old issue. Why is it fatal for a Republican to have a sex scandal (or some other kind), and not so much for a Democrat?
The Left will quickly tell you the difference is “hypocrisy.” As though there is some particular difference between the two sides in which hypocrites abound on the Right but not on the Left.
This has always driven me nuts.
Just because you profess some standards of behavior, as Republican voters typically demand of their candidates, that you can’t always adhere to doesn’t invalidate those standards. We KNOW that what is called “family values” works better as a matter of general practice in ordering a successful society. This isn’t arguable – honesty, work ethic, marital fidelity, a two-parent family, the monogamous heterosexual lifestyle and so on – those things make for more successful living for most people than their alternatives. And conservatives generally ask – and not unreasonably – that candidates seeking to represent them embody those virtues we understand to be our societal best practices.
That doesn’t mean everybody has to be on board with every facet of what social conservatives promote. It means there is value in attempting to steer as many people as possible into as many of the commonly accepted virtues as possible. I favor using the culture to further that process rather than legislation, and that’s difficult to do considering the filth that Hollywood repeatedly showers on us. Regardless, those virtues constitute a standard of behavior which has intrinsic value. And those who seek to lead us can better do so when they’re capable of living that standard.
But if you’ve got high standards, guess what? They’re harder to meet. That means folks held up to them are going to fail, and sometimes spectacularly. This stuff isn’t easy.
And that means Republicans get annihilated by scandals – because Republican voters enforce standards and Republican politicians accept them. But Democrats generally don’t. Democrats get a kick out of calling Republicans hypocrites when they don’t meet standards that neither voters nor politicians on their own side of the aisle even pursue much of the time. Which is why so loathsome and corrupt an individual as Teddy Kennedy could die as “the lion of the Senate” or a Dollar Bill Jefferson would run for re-election amid certain indications of gross misconduct which ultimately landed him in prison while Chris Lee is gone for dabbling – albeit badly – in online dating or Larry Craig had to resign over reports of creepy, if not exactly explicit, conduct in a men’s bathroom.
I’m not attempting to excuse Republicans who fail in this regard. The Chris Lees, John Ensigns, Mark Sanfords and David Vitters of the world weren’t unfairly held up to scrutiny. To those whom much is given, much is expected and so on. Vitter chose to fight through his problems and he’s managed to largely get past them, while the others are finished politically.
What bothers me here is the total lack of shame. Maxine Waters had none when it was obvious she and her husband were padding their wallets with bank bailouts. Rangel had none when it was obvious he was cheating on his taxes. Frank had none amid multiple scandals involving sex and money. Ted Kennedy had none during his countless shameful displays. And so on. And this pattern has now brought us Weiner, whose complete lack of humility and humiliation might even dwarf the rest of the gang.
It seems as though what’s unsaid here by Weiner and those of his ilk is “well, at least I’m not a hypocrite.” But here’s a news flash – it doesn’t matter whether you’re a hypocrite. It matters that you’re a piece of crap.
That is the piece I wanted to write in my “Tale Of Two Sex Scandals” post a couple days ago, but I instead let the pictures tell the story.
Summer vacay means less blogging time for mom.
I’m afraid blogging is going to be slap-dash, intermittent, and link-heavy to other peoples’ superior blogging until late August.
Nice Deb 