What upsets you most about the Weiner sext scandal?

Why didn't he just say, "Yes, I did this. I have apologized to my wife and anyone else who may have been hurt by it."

He could then decline to answer any more questions, and move on. It would have gone away by now.

People do dumb things, whether or not they are public figures.

not to mention what it does to dems as a whole....

I'm glad that he's not resigning, but the entire episode does (at least temporarily) taint his tenure in the House.


(huh huh...."taint")

Everyone to the left of Sarah Palin who raises a stink about Weiner's schlong is missing and distracting from his message - Thomas committed multiple federal crimes by lying on sworn official records. Indict Clarence Thomas.

1. Instead of a private solicitation for cybersex in a forum appropriate such things, he lured individuals in with the prestige of his office, on the very accounts he used to publicize himself. This is in effect a form of sexual harassment of your customer, the constituents in this case. Even if they were not from his district, they are still customers of Congress in general, of which he is a member.

2. His gross incompetence with the display of his erect penis in boxers on a Twitter account used to publicize himself ups the ante even more. The photo will not kill anyone, but the fact that those who would have seen this at the time did not have the choice as to whether to see it, constitutes the negative aspect of it; it is a violation of your right to choose to see that.

3. When discovered, Mr. Weiner carried on a charade that caused many people on the left to make excuses for him to support his lies. In other words, individuals discredited themselves unknowingly by trying to come up with methods by which the original photo could have been planted. They worked themselves up and put themselves out on a limb without even knowing it, only to be profoundly embarrassed later when he admitted he knew it was his picture and that he was the one who posted it.

I think it is a natural thing for humans to lie to cover up something possibly damaging to themselves, but the excessive amount of time is what makes this so embarrassing to us. He would have kept the charade going were it not for images that undoubtedly proved it was him engaging in this type of behavior. He did not willingly admit his misconduct, he was forced to admit it. He, in other words, did not at any time appear to have a change of heart on his own, he did not care enough about all of us who supported him to come clean on his own.

4. The potential for blackmail existed because of his poor judgment, this potential could be used by individuals who wished to get him to vote a certain way on a given issue. This is very profound when you consider the way our system works, and is a reason he should be forced to resign.

Even if he were to do this in a private manner, it would be more acceptable, but the potential for blackmail still exists with that type of behavior.

If you were honest about doing this type of thing, it would eliminate the possibility of blackmail, and as long as there were solicitations in the appropriate forum for this (Facebook and Twitter are not the appropriate forum) I would be OK with it, from the perspective of him being able to do his job. Being married, it is not ethical to cheat, but many people do that and are capable of doing their jobs. It's their personal business between themselves and their partners.

seriously. your post sums it perfectly.

The media exist to make money. They are businesses. If sordid sex stories sell better than "real" news, that's what they're going to run.

It's really that simple.

Because of this, they have a responsibility to serve the public interest. That doesn't necessarily mean follow and pontificate on whatever shiny object the public finds interesting.

Nobody has an enforceable obligation to perform the kind of reporting that most of us agree would be beneficial to the public.

have a right to know.

Congratulations to them. They have decided that this is a nation of voyeurs who have a right to know about people's personal sex lives.

But we the people did not have a say in this major decision.

I would rather know when Clarance Thomas's hearings will take place in Congress to determine if, considering the revelations that have surfaced recently (thank you Rep. Weiner and sorry it cost you your right to privacy) to determine if this SC Justice has disgraced the court by violating the law.

They're business selling entertainment.

It explains why the subject of a few people engaging in the perfectly legal activity (so far) of cyber sex has a segment of the population thinking of nothing else. But that's the goal I guess. And it's our fault.

I am happy to see though, that looking around at many online forums, news sites with comment sections, and the polls on Weiner, not to mention some actual journalism on the state of this country's media as highlighted by the non-story they are covering round the clock, that the American people seem to get it. I have seen more condemnation online and in real life from both Dems and Repubs of the media than of Weiner. So that gives me hope.

If I peeked in my neighbor's window every day I'm sure I would see things that might change my view of them in some way. But then, if I did that, I could probably get arrested. This is what the media is doing. Joining the very perverted and emotionally ill, obsessive idealogue, Andrew Breitbart in his months-long cyber stalking of Rep. Weiner and breathlessly reporting to the rest of us what they see. I for one am not interested. It's not my business.

Maybe my outrage meter is still too focused on photos of dead children in Iraq and Afghanistan to be able to drum up any outrage over the photo of a penis no matter who it belongs to. I just can't do it, sorry.

Sympathy is now shifting to Weiner and his family as it did eventually in the Clinton penis 'outrage'. People finally became simply disgusted by the intense, sick, voyeuristic focus on Clinton's penis by grown men like STarr, who ended up looking a lot more creepy than a man who in the end, was actually doing something normal, if hurtful to the only people who mattered, his family. He left office as a very popular president who probably would have won, had he been able to run again. Starr the voyeur however had to give up his dreams of becoming a SC court justice, and rightly so imo. His priorities were disturbing to say the least.

That was a message to witch hunters everywhere. But apparently one they have forgotten, driven as they are by their own disturbing obsessions. I predict the same will happen again, as the American people won't faint at the sight of a penis, or at the knowledge that public figure made some irresponsible choices when it comes to sex. In general, except for the loony fundie fringes on the right, the American people have far more common sense than the immature members of the press who have mostly thoroughly disgraced themselves, like Starr, over the past several weeks and the obsession appears to too strong to break for them. Maybe THEY need some therapy. The public has moved on mostly, as the polls are showing.

I have seen no charges of harassment. That is a serious, and new to me, charge. As far as I know all the women willingly engaged in cyber sex with him. At any time, if they felt they were being harassed, they have a 'delete' button on their computers. As far as I know, none of them used it.

Is this some new information? Did he go to their homes? Pursue them AFTER being told he was deleted?

If you have a link to this new information, please post it.

that we live in a wired, interconnected world?

If you tweet it, it will come back.

I particularly love when a politician denies making a statement, and then within 5 minutes the youtube video appears.

Seriously, I think sometimes they think it is 1950.

our business.

Clearly, we didn't mean it.

We've enacted a new variation on DADT. In this one, we on the left PRETEND to not care about a politician's sex life, but if we DO become aware of it (or allegations about it), and the politician LIES about it ... THEN apparently, they have to resign.

So for example ... a soldier does not TELL that he/she is gay. Some one else accuses said soldier of being gay. An investigation ensues. Soldier can't tell the truth and stay in military. Lies. Soldier is found to be gay, everyone finds out .... DISCHARGE.

Either we care about some ones sex life, or we don't.

As this incident shows, we absolutely care.

That he wasn't hitting up on me.

He is kinda cute.....

My attention span isn't long enough to be interested (or outraged) for more than a couple of days...


:+

Now the entire thing will need to be washed and sanitized.

Weiner revealed himself to be a creepy putz who did major damage to his own brand.

Now that everyone has had a chance to wag their fingers and tongues I hope we can get on to stuff that actually matters.

Really stupid on both counts.

Sob.

Nothing...he cheated on his wife, end of story. Not smart, but what more do we need to be mad about? His lies? I think he could have come out and told the truth from the beginning, but did not.

It's much different from defensive reflex lie. Wayyy more offensive.