It's good that Weiner's going...

It doesn't matter if you think he was a "strong progressive voice"...because no progressive voice, strong or otherwise has been able to break through a media which will always fixate on a juicy scandal (especially one that can offer up a "former porn star") for nearly two weeks.

It doesn't matter what David Vitter or John Ensign or Bill Clinton did in the past...because this is right now, in a world with cell phones and social media that allows embarassing photos to be collected and then leak out interminably.

It doesn't matter what Weiner's constituents think...because other voters have an opinion too, and the Party has to think about how it's candidates, progressive and otherwise, are going to get elected when the Republican Party and its supporters have juicy photos, emails and tweats to distract people with.

Weiner could have ended this two weeks ago by copping to what he did, apologizing immediately and maybe salvaging his political career.

Weiner could have ended this one week ago by offering to step down and possibly running in the special election that would be called to claim vindication from the voters, ala Vitter.

Instead, he has allowed this story to drag out endlessly. He's done no favors to his party and no favors to himself.

Bad men able to stay. Glad your happy.

The Right is shutting the voices of the Left down, and using blackmail and any other means necessary, and some on OUR side cheer these tactics......shameful.

no one. Look at the ratings.

A "good man"?

How the hell did you get around Weiner to that asshole?

issues of governance makes them a good man/woman.

That's exactly how it works.
What could be more heinous for an elected official than violating the Constitution?
And yet, I look around and see dozens, no, hundreds, who have done this with impunity.
But screw up in your personal life and you are an instant pariah... if you're a Democrat.

for it. Then, we wouldn't be discussing it at all. I don't think he had a choice here.

As for Vitter, only a call from his own party to step down will have any effect, and I doubt that's on the horizon.

now direct their outrage towards Vitter?

and blaming his problems on a conspiracy against him. He's also been re-elected by his state since the scandal. We've got a thousand things more important than Vitter to be outraged about.

...and those pictures had been published on the Internet, I think he'd be out of office today.

The better analogy is Chris Lee (NY-26) who had his body parts photographed and released to web, and who left in less time than Weiner did.

For better or worse, the David Vitter story is four years old. The Bill Clinton story is fourteen years old. People, and the media, fixate on the hear and now.

:sarcasm:

:sarcasm:
unreced op for poor logic

a loving (heterosexual) husband or a eunuch.

That's rather limiting and unrealistic.

http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2011-06-anthony-weiners-bad-judgement-that-is-so-not-the-poi

This is fucking politics not religion.........


To win a mud wrestling contest you have to BE in the pit, but the Party wants to keep it's precious hands clean.

And people here are super stoked about this. And then wring their hands and whine and moan when Republicans rake Dems over the coals.

Yet, calling for resignation isn't the -only- available inoculation against guilt by association.

It's just the option that was chosen by the DNC.

There is a not very hidden message about the DNC leadership in that if one chooses to ponder it. It isn't a message of measured justice producing minimal necessary damage that one would associate with social liberals.

A real good thing. And tomorrow....tomorrow's gonna be a... real good day!

messaging that Wiener's hoopla has been obstructing. To all the sanctimonious wimpy dems that have been harping for Wiener to resign - good luck to you and I hope you find the event that will finally be acceptable enough to stand up to your nemesis - the rethugs. As for me, I am done with even bothering with a party of wimps!

Makes us look silly to demand one thing for the Repug's and then do the exact opposite when one of our own makes a fool of himself. I understand people loved Weiner because of his aggressive defense of progressive values but the fact remains we now know he was also sexting some VERY graphic stuff while he was working on government time.

But hey, judging from the picture I saw the man is packing some serious power and I expect him to make an enormous reentrence into the polical void. :-)

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Whether he stays or goes doesn't matter now. He's already damaged himself to the public and to party leadership by lying and acting immaturely.

He'll never be a serious leader on any issue now, so he's relegated to being a vote in the house with no influence. If he stays, he's just a vote. If he goes, someone else might be just a vote, or someone else might be more.

Personally, I thought he should stick around, but the damage to his influence has been done and it was self-inflicted.

For example, Elliot Abrams:

During investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair, Lawrence Walsh, the Independent Counsel tasked with investigating the case, prepared multiple felony counts against Abrams but never indicted him. Instead, Abrams entered into a plea agreement with Walsh. Abrams pled guilty to two misdemeanors of withholding information from Congress. He was sentenced to a $50 fine, probation for two years, and 100 hours of community service. However, Abrams was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush, in December 1992 (as he was leaving office following his loss in that year in the U.S. presidential election). On February 5, 1997, the D.C. Court of Appeals publicly censured Abrams for giving false testimony on three occasions before congressional committees. Although a majority of the court voted to impose a public censure, three judges in the majority would have imposed a suspension of six months, and a fourth judge would have followed the recommendation of the Board on Professional Responsibility that Abrams be suspended for a year.

President George W. Bush appointed Abrams to the post of special assistant to the president and senior director for democracy, human rights, and international operations at the National Security Council on June 25, 2001. Abrams was appointed special assistant to the President and the NSC’s senior director for Near East and North African Affairs on December 2, 2002.

The Observer has claimed that Abrams had advance knowledge of, and "gave a nod to," the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez.

I thought Weiner should just stick around to provide a spotlight on Vitter, but, he was never going to have a role in Congress anymore.

progressives have no influence in this administration or congress.

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