Anthony Weiner: A Cock and Bull Story

Congressman Anthony Weiner held a press conference yesterday morning to admit he sent a picture of his boxered penis to a myriad of tweeting young women, and then lied about it in almost every news medium known to the human race.

It was an unavoidable and unavoidably cringe-worthy affair. He had to apologise, to blush, to cry and to face punishing ridicule from a press corps gleeful they’d bagged a voyeuristic Democrat and angry it had taken them so long. He had no choice but to grimace, lament and mourn in all the right places whilst strips were unrelentingly torn from his back. And he had to do it patiently, until the last question was asked (worth looking up) and he was allowed to shuffle from the room knowing  most of the world would have intimate knowledge of more than the tail between his legs before the day was done.

Unsurprisingly, the reactions have been about as tawdry as the event that sparked them. The right wing press (the same ones that claim conservative values and respect to privacy are right self-evident) are re-running the tear-soaked film of Weiner’s confession whilst desperately trying to prove he’s a paedophile. Liberal commentators on the other side of the networks,  frightened that  ‘Democrat’ and ‘crotch’in the same sentence might give voters anther reason to turn Republican, are keen to distance themselves from Weiner in every possible regard. The Washington Post, meanwhile, is suggesting he may have just done it all for the (column) inches.

Amid a base and scintillating media whirlwind it is easy to be distracted from the things that matter and to forget that Weiner was once more than a depressingly obvious pun.

It’s easy, for example, to forget the New York representative was one of the staunchest advocates of Medicare replacement or expansion during Obama’s first year in office, and a keen disciple of the ‘public option’ in HR3200. And that he was honest enough to brand the Republican Party as “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry,” in a speech at around the time health legislation was negotiating additional sittings of the House and Senate finance committees.

It’s easy to forget he has been amongst the most consistent advocates of social rights for women and minorities. That he has, for instance, been hugely critical of the right-wing’s endless torrent of anti-abortion policy. In fact, during his first term, the rooky Congressmen voted no to every piece of legislation criminalizing or de-funding abortion clinics and received a 100% rating the National Abortion Rights Action League. He also voted numerous times in favor of gay marriage, against workplace discrimination and opposing potential limits to freedom of expression, qualifying him for an 87% success rating from the American Civil Liberties Union.

It’s easy to forget Weiner has demonstrated something approaching a  ‘progressive’ stance economic regulation and expansion. In March 2010, he succesfully co-sponsored a bill to end Internet tobacco smuggling, which had the pleasant affect of boosting state revenue and limiting adolescent smoking. Later the same year he was also one of the few Democrats willing to break ranks from the White House and vote against the Republican dominated Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, otherwise known as ‘the Bush tax cuts.’

And if you’ve forgotten all that,  it’s unlikely his  foreign affairs action has shone through the haze of cocks and cock-ups. Although perhaps that’s one the more flattering things to ignore; he flip-flopped on Iraq (along with seemingly everyone else in Congress) and crudely misjudged the significance of the PLO in UN peace negotiations.  However, it would be useful if we could cling to a fading collective  memory of his blistering honesty on the bias of some organizations towards Israel, especially since criticizing our zionist ally has gone so out of fashion amid images of Arab emancipation. It’s also worth remembering that Weiner was one of the few to criticize Obama’s international arms sale policy after a $60 bn deal was ratified with Saudi Arabia: ”[They are] not deserving of our aid, and by arming them with advanced American weaponry we are sending the wrong message,” he said simply. And in Congress, the one-time gubernatorial New York candidate voted in favor of democratic reform in Pakistan, supported debt relief of $156m to the third world and helped expand the US’s foreign aid budget.

But you can’t invest good deeds to pay for bad. No amount of foreign aid, debt relief, democratic reform or foreign policy nous can give license to camera-phone pictures of nether regions, and all the economic reforms, tax credits and social security expansion in the world can’t justify the decision to tweet them at one-inch avatars. Just as supporting a women’s right to chose, fighting against a creeping tendency for minority abuse and pursuing free health care doesn’t give license to lies and misdirections.

It was inappropriate, no amount of policy success excuses it and in a hostile political climate the media crucifies indiscretion. But they don’t lambast their victims to right a moral wrong or vindicate young women; they do it to offer cheap consolations, score cheap points and sell cheap products. Its nothing new. Political achievement and worthwhile debate is sold up the river for the price of a 30-second spot ad and an RNC button constantly, but today it includes the loss of a good Congressmen and potentially great mayor.

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• mjonesx

  Another Billy Clinton makeup to derail the Dem’s agenda and put forth Big $$$ program on Capital Hill. The public is so easily distracted by this nonsense.
  Why did he use his real name to sign up opn these websites? Dummie

• saintmeat

  Possibly because he’s a serial liar. Possibly because he’s too stupid to use twitter, and possibly because he’s an arrogant, foolish little man who thought that even if caught he would suffer no bad consequences.

  Name – nature. He’s plainly a D*ck.

• cawobeth

  TY for you reply here. Yes, what matters is truth and honest representatives of this country. The world situation(s) is (are) very serious.
  This Earth is in great need of healing. In order to heal & survive, we must unite as people. Unfortunately, we have control freaks, dishonest people and corrupt & greedy media that divides people.
  We all need to stand up for truth and interact with integrity as we express compassion for our fellow man.

  Some days I don’t want to hear the “news” yet, I feel responsible because I care. It really hurts to see this stupid behavior let alone the unmitigated, over-reactions to it.
  “We the People” better start working harder to take our country back. The gov. & media are supposed to represent us, not the other way around

• coldfield

  Hello and good afternoon to all readers , looking at the torso and face of the Hotdog” Weiner the face of the  modern ?? Democratic Party a clown ? or buffon , scumbag , who wants to play like Arnold-Marlene , the bright congressman should not be worry to resign from his cozy job , of aides , girls , POWER , he just have to llok to other democrats Clinton and Monica , Eliot Spitzer with the ladies of Wash. DC , and you have to look this way a nice distraction for Nobel winner of the White House , no jobs , health care , tornados , cost of Wars , , economy , money wasted in limos , in trips for the “royal” family etc. Bye to a “brilliant” with just i/2 of a neurone in his brain , keep sending photos into the space, in the name of the liberals.

• Whyshouldihavetoregister

  Give up; a lefty scumbag is still a scumbag, and someone who defends a lefty scumbag because he’s a lefty is also a scumbag.

• Guest

  And that all scum is of more use in appropriate context than are the obsessives who bang on about scum.

• johninchina

  To all contributors.  This is not about the left or right but of an indiviudal who has behaved in a reckless and despictable manner.  An individual who is clearly short of a few sandwiches for the picnic and an someone who is paid from the public purse to perform public duties which don’t include sending images of his ‘personal’ parts to others.  His wife must be devastated.  The right and left can fight over the whys and wherefores but the fact is that he acted like a prize clown and needs to be punished for it.  Both the left and the right had their fair share of clowns and will continue to do so.  The Democrats need to have him removed from the party, acknowledge what has been done and then move on!