Weinergate Roundup: Top Five Posts

Source: Rolling Stone
By Julian Brookes

On top of all the weiner/wiener hilarity and boner euphemisms, Weinergate has generated some interesting commentary. Here, five posts that (ahem) stood out for me today.

If Anthony Weiner never met his online girlfriends in the flesh, wonders Will Saletan, does that mean he didn't cheat?
"Ten days into Weinergate, this is where we stand. The congressman has admitted to fooling around with women online, but he refuses to acknowledge that this was unfaithful. What's worth debating now isn't what he did, but what it means. Increasingly, sexual adventures outside of marriage are taking place online. Is this cheating? Or is it something less, as long as you don't touch one another?"

Garance Franke-Ruta gives four reasons why Weiner could survive ("One key factor: that none of the women work in the sex industry") and concludes:
"s the cases of Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank and Bill Clinton and David Vitter have shown, voters can be much more forgiving than television pundits or newspaper editorial boards. It can be difficult to assess the actual impact of a scandal on a politician's career during the first week of the controversy. And given that adultery remains a major cause of divorce in this country, and that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that we routinely elect divorced people (some of whom were doubtless unfaithful), we seem as a nation to have settled the debate over whether marital problems should be a de facto disqualifier for public service."

Hendrik Hertzberg calls Weinergate "the first entirely virtual political sex scandal" but says in other ways it's "not so new."
"It confirms a pet theory of mine: the Clinton Rule, which states that when a married politician appears before cameras and microphones and starts babbling absurd lies about some sexual something, the person he is really trying to lie to is his spouse. The lies that get told to the public and the press are side effects. So far this rule has applied only to heterosexual politicians, but gay marriage is still in its infancy. We shall see."

More at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/weinergate-roundup-top-five-posts-20110607

I've thought that, also. The behavior is typical of a cheating spouse and, while dumb beyond belief in a politician who's actually trying to do his job and is therefore being targeted by entrenched corruption, it's completely understandable as normal human behavior.

This is his wife's problem, not mine and not yours. How he does his job is our problem.

When I was caught "cheating" in an online relationship, it became crystal clear in that instant that it would be fruitless, foolish, and cruel to deny it.

Do not further disrespect your partner by perpetuating the falsehood. If you wish to salvage the relationship, then take the steps to begin that process.

In my case, I knew that the person I'd been lying to the longest was myself, and I performed an emotional amputation immediately. I can't say for sure if it was a mercy killing, but it was the right thing for both of us.

Don't gaslight every person who speaks up on your behalf, or who voices doubts about your story. You make everyone look like a fool--most of all, yourself.

because I was the wife who always knew, anyway. Clumsy lies just destroyed any respect I had for him as a person, and that was tragic. Even drunk, he was a good guy. I also knew he was lying mostly to himself.

However, that takes strength of character that few people have.

No sane person does not get that. We should not give 2 sh&%ts about the rest and what they think.

If this keeps up (and it will) the entire country will reach a tipping point and feel sorry for him if they don't already. This is getting beyond disgusting what Brietbart is doing. Let Weiner walk the walk and single handedly stand up to these right wing BS monsters and mark my words, he could be the next American hero. People are sick of this shit.

In the end he will put even the Dem's to shame and come out on top. I know he can do it, it is his forte. Somebody has to.

Maybe this is what he really, really wanted. He has the drive, the ego and the intelligence to create enough blow back for these freaks to make them irrelevant forever. Don't we all want this? This is NOT Reid or Pelosi we are talking about. Weiner is not a marshmallow.

I've been quiet on this until today. I can no longer hold back.


:hide:

He's already trying to mend fences with fellow Democrats.

Now he needs to go on the attack against the right wing smear machine, especially since the only "sin" they ever focus on is sex and only when Democrats do it.

It's not what Weiner did, it's what they are doing to him and what they are doing to our country. I say all of us should mobilize and tell those fuckers, ok, bring it! Fight back. If he were my husband I would have appreciated the lies on National TV. There is some honor to that. I would want to be the first to know. What was he supposed to do? I would be angry, but I would stand by him and fight back. Not show weakness which is exactly what they are both doing. Maybe divorce after the win or rethink the marriage then. There is too much at stake. All Democrats need to go on the attack. Enough already.

If they split, it's an indicator, but not a certain one.

Outsiders (you and me and the rest of us) pretend we know something about the relationship of a couple they don't even know in person. We neurotically fit the couple's relationship into a template of what a relationship is supposed to be, even though most of us know this template doesn't actually fit many or most of the relationships we actually do know something about in person.

The couple under examination know the same template. They know the rules of political theater that they're supposed to follow. So the protestations of the man that he's so sorry he hurt her (which maybe he did, and maybe he is) and of the woman that she's standing by her man may in fact be true, but they may merely be kabuki for public consumption. Either way, these protestations are a ritual they are required to play out for the ravenous, pretend-puritan media and public.

If they had an open relationship or both got off on random flirtations with strangers, they definitely wouldn't tell you. Their public statements would be the same. If they ever told you such a thing, they'd be subjected to a whole new witchhunt.

In other words the reality of the couple being scrutinized (which is none of our business, absolutely none whatsoever, as long as no coercion is involved) may by coincidence be just like the template we are expected by social convention to project upon it. But could just as easily be different. Either way you'd see them act the same way.

Long as they stay together, it is and should be a black box to you and me and the rest of us, because it really is none of our business. Everyone obsessing on it is doing so to satisfy their own repressed titillation or petty need to condemn imagined moral deviance. (That last part you may call my own projection on to the public, if you wish).

.

They are playing by the rules and keeping it quiet as they should. I was speculating on what I would do, and yes, projecting. I agree that none of this is anyone's business. I think we have reached the phase where the smearing is growing considerably more heinous and ugly by the day in ridiculous proportion to Weiner's offense. Releasing one photo a day serves no other purpose than stoking the media frenzy. It's nuts.

The appearance of strength on the couple's part may serve to, or, has already contributed to escalating the attacks into increasingly unacceptable levels of character assassination that can be worked into major blow back. They are simply crazy. That is the moral outrage of the situation.

If the Weiners choose to fall apart publicly and end the marriage, the attacks would stop and the opportunity would be lost. I think Weiner should take advantage of it now, and make the unrelenting attacks his case to the American people to expose this. It worked for the Clintons. He really doesn't have a choice. He ether goes under the bus or strikes while the fire is hot. I think he can win back his credibility and then some. He is already a household name. Show the people what you're made of. Americans love an underdog. He can do it.

I'm not really seeing "legit" moral outrage over the sexting, his constituents still approve of him. It's comedy show fodder and will blow over. It's already getting old.

Just my opinion.