It is the ultimate example of voters getting the representatives that they deserve. A recent poll shows 56 percent of constituents of Anthony Weiner want him to remain in office. I spoke on the Weiner scandal on CNN last night.
For years, Democrats have been criticizing the blind loyalty shown to politicians from Tom DeLay to David Vitter. Yet, in New York, voters want to retain a politicians who spent a week piling lie upon lie over the sending of lewd photos. In addition, some of the women complained that they only wanted to talk politics — making (if true) Weiner a type of virtual flasher. He then alleged that a crime of hacking was committed and attacked media — calling them foul names and blaming them for the scandal. Despite this record, the voters want Weiner to continue to speak for them. Weiner only admitted his lies when pictures emerged showing him and confirming his role. Stories have now emerged suggesting that he contacted at least one woman to try to convince her to lie.
What exactly does it take? Just because you like his politics and he attacks people you dislike does not excuse a member in such despicable conduct. When people complain about Congress being a cesspool, they need to consider how their own blind loyalties contribute to that problem.
Weiner is now saying that his wife is making him stay in office, though others have suggested that he needs this job. In the end, it is up to the voters to determine the minimal level of honesty and integrity required to be their representative in Congress.
Sources: NY Post
I suppose her services don’t come cheap. But then considering the buyer, I guess I don’t blame her too much; dealing with that much slime deserves a hefty premium.
Ditto in re to mom Buddha, thanks
Thanks Mike for asking. For what ever reason she just can not retain fluid. I just got back from New York and had to take her to the E.R. to get a bag of saline dumped in her. We have a doctor who lives across the street who seems to think she may have a condition called Diabetes Insipidus. I called the primary today to see if we can get her tested. Thanks for asking.
You of all should know I can be a jokster at times.
Bad pet troll!
Back under the bridge!
No “Dora the Explorer” casserole for you!
P.S. I do hope your mom is doing well.
I’m just messin with ya’ll, specially Mr.c
Tony C.,
“I would not describe a couple earning $154K as struggling to make ends meet.”
Unless you’re Newt & Callista Gingrich and spend thousands of dollars at Tiffany & Company on baubles, bangles, and bright shiny beads.
Callista’s favorite song:
And of course, the CEJ list is indicted and convicted people, while the BDA list is littered with innuendo and republican sliming attacks and wild exaggerations (like Letterman’s joke). But of course bdaman cannot distinguish between an actual crime and a lie, he has already told us that in this very thread.
Bdaman,
How curious that CEJ’s list seems to be 10 times yours and frankly yours smells of untruth. The easy proof of that comes from the bottom of the list: Let’s not forget:
“John Wayne Gacy, rapist, murderer, democrat fund raiser
Michael Skakel, Kennedy, murderer
William Kennedy Smith, Kennedy, rapist
Brian Doyle, dem activist child molester
Neil Goldschmidt, Oregon governor, confessed child molester
Rep. Mel Reynolds, D-IL child rapist pardoned by clinton
The Kennedy Family Murder, Rapes
The Clinton Rapes
David Lettermans pedophile remarks about a 13 year old girl”
Really Bdaman……..I mean REALLY!
John Wayne Gacy, Michael Skakel, David letterman? I know your partisan but would you really go to the length of quoting a website listing John Wayne Gacy as a Democrat because he may have raised funds for that. Do you really want to get into Ted Haggard, for instance. This is far too partisan a link even for you. Didn’t you think someone would actually check it out? I just read it cusorially and am replying in that mode. If I felt I needed to thoroughly check it out I suspect I would have little difficulty discrediting the site. This is a very disappointing sidestep by you.
PS: In any event I hope your Moms is doing well.
CEJ my response
Democrat Pedophiles and Sex Offenders Outnumber Repubs, many Dems re-elected.
The only difference between democrats and republicans when it comes to sex offenders is: Democrats have more, and re-elect them.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f4c_1254342072
Bdaman,
Here is a website for you, with a convenient list of Republican offenders, including already convicted felons and their indicted brethren from 1998-2008. As the list is incomplete maybe you could do some work over there bringing the site up to date.
http://republicanoffenders.com/
@Mike S: I know it is possible, I was trying to debunk this notion that Weiner needs his job to live in NYC (while his wife is earning $154K). People that have never spent any time in NYC mythologize the cost of living there; as if the Weiner family income of $310K is a barely survivable income and if it were cut in half, they would be somehow financially distressed. Or that their credit card debt that totals less than one month of their income might somehow send them into a tailspin.
My argument was that Weiner lied for emotional reasons, to protect his ego and avoid shame, not because he needed the money or to protect his job. His job didn’t need protecting, and the money is a side-effect, as you say (and I believe) he could probably double (or quadruple) his income by resigning; many corporations would create a position for him if he were interested.
I don’t believe his motives for lying were financial in the least. He was trying to protect his wildly inflated ego and self-image as a super hero champion of the left. Now he looks like a putz.
Weiner has one big unfinished job. Several of those calling for his resignation may have good reason to fear him completing what he started.
Started what, you might ask? He has been in the process of going after Justice Clarence Thomas’ alleged ethical and financial misconduct. Like the denial his wife had an income on his financial disclosure form. Those are impeachable offenses if proven true, since they involve perjury, among other things.
As for whether you can live comfortably in NYC with $154,000 per year the answer is yes and I am a native NY’er with many current contacts in the City. Especially if you live in Queens, where Weiner lives. Give me that $154,000 and I’d move back in a heartbeat. This is just more silliness. As an ex-congressman, even a “disgraced” one he could easily earn twice that amount, but our country and House would be poorer for his loss. Almost all politicians engage in illicit sex, it goes with the territory of celebrity and power, but I could care less what they do with their sex organs. What do they do for the American people should always be the real question.
This is all nonsensical to me. I don’t care what anyone’s sexual fantasies are as long as they are not predatory or harmful to others. Really, Bdaman isn’t talking about his possible cross-dressing a tad overkill? Why is it that Vitter, who used prostitutes to play baby games, while dressed in diapers, got very little publicity and was even re-elected by his supposed hyper-moral electorate? There was no “Vittergate.”
Now no hint of sexual irregularity has been assigned to either Bush and/or Cheney, yet they probably committed what is close to treason, torture and murder. In comparison I’ll take a sexually kinky person, with a clear vision of justice, over some pious practitioner of fidelity anytime.
This issue should be settled by his constituents, not a corporate press, hypocritical Republicans, or cowardly Democrats. People are out of work, our economy is tanking, we’re involved in conflict worldwide, the climate is changing and the income gap is increasing exponentially. This silliness is a mere distraction from the real issues and in the grand scheme of things not worth talking about.
Besides, the point is about his wife’s salary of $154K and the fact that they could live on that in NYC, if a “government affairs director” in NYC earns $160K, that is obviously a livable wage in NYC. Weiner would not have to work at all, but if he wanted to work he could match his congressional salary in a heartbeat. Only problem is that he might then have actual duties to perform, unlike his current gig.
@Bdaman: Qualified doesn’t mean he can get one.
What is the point of that statement? Besides you are wrong; he is superbly qualified, he is an expert on what really goes on in Congress and on how to get real shit done. He knows all the players and their staff, he knows their personalities and what moves them and how to get to them. He is an insider, and no stranger to dirty tactics.
IF he resigned the chances are about 100% he would be working within a month, with a signing bonus to boot, in a job of this description: Managing lobbyists.
There are millions of Americans who are qualified for jobs, the problem is they can’t find one.
More senselessness, Weiner is not an ordinary American, he is one of 438 Representatives in the entire country, and IF he resigned then of those available with his depth of insider knowledge he would be one of a few dozen at most, most of whom are already employed elsewhere. The supply of such people is very low, the demand for such people is very high.
As for your salacious delight in Weiner’s sex life, I’d bet money he had already told her everything there was to know before his press conference admitting the lie, and they have already decided how to handle it, and no teenage pictures of him will dissuade them from that path. The idea that she is coming home to “confront” him is just imagined bullshit, she arrived home after a business trip with Hillary, probably to take a shower and a nap before unpacking her bags.
Do you think they were out of reach of the TV and telephones?
You do not seem to understand anything about how the world really works.
Swarthmore,
I wonder if Weiner has met Jeff Gannon or a certain Louisiana Senator named Vitter at this rehab center?
bdaman He is in treatment. The fact that he went indicated to me that there were more pictures, etc………..
which is a job Weiner would be qualified to execute after his Congressional services
Qualified doesn’t mean he can get one. There are millions of Americans who are qualified for jobs, the problem is they can’t find one.
Judgement day: Weiner’s wife returns home to confront errant husband as new
images emerge showing congressman cross dressing and ‘oiled up’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003804/Anthony-Weiners-wife-Huma-Abedin-returns-home-cross-dressing-images-emerge.html#ixzz1PLykzam2
For a government affairs director at a corporation, which is a job Weiner would be qualified to execute after his Congressional services, in New York city that should pay him about $160K. At the professional level (over $100K), it appears to me from the bureau of labor statistics data that it costs around $20K more in annual salary for a professional to live in New York City than it would cost them to live in Denver, and around $35K more to live in NYC than in some of the lower rent cities of middle America. Certainly $154K would still provide a comfortable living for two in NYC.