The Chris Moeller Archives

The real scandal

We finally found an issue that Democratic lawmakers in Washington can get passionate about: running one of their own (Anthony Weiner) out of town. What I resent most, as a citizen, is that this gaggle of elitist peacocks feels that it can work behind the scenes to impact a decision in respect to a fellow politician's future when the decision about his future should belong to Weiner's constituents in the Queens and Brooklyn boroughs of New York City. That's not just Minority Party Leader Nancy Pelosi trying to rid her caucus of Weiner, that's the representative from California's 8th district trying to force a change for New York's 9th district. More two-party bullshit. It remains to be seen what Weiner has been exposed of here besides having an active, and rather harmless, fantasy life, yet the den of thieves that is the nation's capital is quick to cast its typically-insincere collective judgment upon an individual's private family morality.

Contrary to most of the commentary we've been hearing and reading, the new cultural low that's been established with this story is not with the sexual behavior of a political figure, but with the righteous clucking of Washington insiders, most of whom are probably at least as perverted as, and much more disingenuous, than the "pervert" in question. These individuals stoop to presume that they can speak for a "wronged" woman they don't really know in almost every case, and to opine on marital vows that are private, someone else's, and none of their frigging business. Weiner's fellow lawmakers are showing themselves to be spineless, vindictive hypocrites, and the "journalists" in town wouldn't know a real government scandal if it bit them on the ass.

---

Incidentally, if Maureen Dowd believes that Weiner's "web of lies" is "outrageous even for Capitol Hill," as she states in the opinion column linked above, then the New York Times is even more outdated and trivial than I already thought. Weiner's "web" comes in at about #540 on the overall rankings.

posted by CM @ 3:39 PM