I must admit to being a bit depressed this day about our country and what has come of principles and ethics among both our politicians and citizens. There seems to be a corruption not just of power but of spirit. The Weiner scandal this morning captures my angst perfectly. There literally does not appear a single redeeming character. You have Anthony Weiner aka Carlos Danger. Then you have the other half of the power couple, Huma Abedin, who assured everyone that she still believes in him while recent reports show a questionable salary arrangement with a Clinton-connected company. Then you have Ms. Leathers, one of the other women, who is actually denouncing Weiner as betraying her when she was helping him betray his wife. Then you have Democratic voters who still have Weiner in a close second place to be elected mayor of New York. If you wonder why our politicians treat us like chumps, just take a look at the Weiner scandal.
First, let check in with Carlos Danger. Weiner is now saying that he may have had three women with whom he had a kinky Internet relationship after resigning and after his wife gave birth to their child. You may remember Weiner’s first apology where he promised to reform and focus on the love of his life (no not power): Huma. Now he suggests that she may have pushed him into the Internet arms of women because he had these relationship during a “rough time” in his marriage. That “rough time” of course was due to Weiner’s original scandal with women, some of whom never asked for pictures of his naked body and genitalia. It was the same rough time when he lied to his wife while attacking these women and reporters over the story. He now suggests that, after creating that rough time, he was forced to have additional relationships. That is like having an affair with one women and then starting affairs with three others because the first affair left him a bit estranged or uncomfortable with his wife. To a narcissist like Weiner, that makes perfect sense.
Then there is Huma. At one time, she fit the role for many as a redeeming character. The mother-to-be struggling to hold her family together with a new baby and national scandal. More recently, many have noted that she appears to have learned much at the knee of Hillary Clinton. Reports state that some donors to Weiner were trying to stay in the good graces of Clinton through Huma. While previously indicating that she almost left Weiner, she again appeared at his side after the most recent disclosures to keep their election hopes alive. I am really not sure why she fits in politically into this story. I am more interested in her working for a private company while working for the State Department in her questionable salary arrangement.
Then there is my favorite morally bankrupt character: liberal activist and Internet companion Sydney Leathers. Weiner offered Leathers to help find Leathers a condo and a job while asking her to destroy evidence of their communications. Leathers has gone public with tearful interviews as . . . wait for it. . . the victim of Weiner. She admits that she knew who he was and that he was married. The newspapers were filled with accounts of his trying to repair his marriage with a new born child. However, Leathers says she was betrayed. The 22-year-old former tanning salon worker and political blogger declared herself “disgusted” and told “Inside Edition” that “It makes me feel physically ill. I’m disgusted by him. He’s not who I thought he was.” Who exactly was that? She was knowingly corresponding with Weiner under the name of Carlos Danger behind the back of his wife. Yet, she insisted that she thought he loved her more than Huma and she believed in him.
That hurt however did not stop her, according to friends, considering selling the details of her relationship to the highest bidder. That is just good business. She just cannot understand how a man who lied to everyone, betrayed his wife with her, and engaged in kinky Internet communications:
“I just feel nauseous, literally nauseous when I see him. You get to know someone and you think they’re this other person and then you really find out they’re just kind of a sexual deviant and that’s it.”
Finally, there are the voters. Despite repeated lies and attacks from Weiner, New York voters still gave him a commanding lead in the race for Mayor. Even after the latest lies (and apology), he remains in second with 16 percent percent of Democratic voters still waiting to give him the job. He will be on the same ballot as Eliot Spitzer, who left office in disgrace as Governor after admitting to repeatedly hiring prostitutes even when he was the chief law enforcement officer putting others in jail. Spitzer is the frontrunner for Comptroller of New York. It does not matter obviously too many. Advocates cite Republicans like David Vitter or how smart these two politicians are or insist that this is personal stuff. The latter point is curious since Weiner lied to the public and attacked both these women and reporters. Spitzer betrayed his oath of office and committed crimes while incarcerating others for crimes. That is not personal stuff. That is dishonesty in public office and an utter lack of ethics.
It is the perfect modern American morality play with no moral or even moral characters.
Huma certainly learned at the knee of Hillary. Unfortunately for Huma, Hillary failed to tell her that, while the “stand by your man” act works when your man is President, an otherwise likeable guy, and essential to your political future, it doesn’t fly when your man is an unemployed exhibitionist who is the laughingstock of the nation. As long as the media continues to be focused on Anthony’s weiner, everyone near him needs to stand back, way back.
should be: my name
Nick,
Since you’ve mentioned by name….
About those long walks in order to disassociate yourself from all this icky stuff…
So is that how you were able to convince yourself that the OTHER guy was the one commiting the crime?
Sorry, while I don’t condone what Spitzer did, I don’t condemn him for it, either. I might if I knew he was aggressively prosecuting prostitutes and their clients, but my understanding is that he targeted financial fraud on Wall St. like no one has before or since. That takes a special type of nerve and resolve, particularly in this day and age when all bow down to Bling, which required an outlet like risky sexual behavior.
Spitzer didn’t force himself on anyone. When he was caught, he didn’t lie about it, and as far as we know, he no longer consorting with prostitutes. His relationships were consensual and while, again, I don’t approve of that behavior, the harm he caused,in my view, was strictly to his family.
One of the troubles with our political culture is that it demands flawless public figures. And how’s that been working out? JT is buying into the whole once flawed, never forgiven mentality.
Miguel….
Your message is lost…. It is the parties…. Each one blames the other…. Deal with it….
deal with it how? instruct me.
if the parties blame ea other… a dubious distinction, cant we stipulate that the parties ea are culpable and go deeper in the analysis?
or is that it? Its just a problem of political parties?
Tell me how “my message” is lost.
Raff,
Remember Lance a former cowboy that was married to Joey heatherton….. The beautiful lady that did the mattress commercials….
Sorry, I should let this go I suppose… and will after this….
It is not both parties. That is the wrong level from which to address this issue. In my view.
(In the terms of actually understanding the issue.)
The parties have always, from the beginning , had its corruptions and bad actors. (Not to mention the side point that many of the founders talked about political parties as a fundamental “evil” as an unholy concentration of power with agendas distinct from the commonweal..)
Ok. I’ll pack up the soapbox on this one.
I hope we, not only here on this blog, but in our public square at large, come to deal with the issues in terms that are illuminating and not simply distracting.
Carlos Danger and Sydney Leathers…I am sure that there is a punch line in there somewhere. I heard someone state that if we did not have the internet, Carlos Danger would be walking around with a trench coat on and flashing people on the corner. The man is sick and he needs help.
Anyways Miguel you got the point…. And both parties a infested with crabs and scabies….. You won’t get an argument from me…
Which folks?
As for only game in town? Not sure what you mean. What I am certain about is that it is not a partisan issue this moral decline. It just happens that we have 2 highly visible characters in NY at the moment. Dig not even very much deeper and you’ll find a whole nest of these vipers… and worse than these two, of all parties, at all levels.
And that is just the personal morality.
I am suggesting that the national immorality as manifest in Cheney/Bush era (whoever the actual actors were – ie, including their “democratic” enablers. ) exceeds the worst that Wiener’s “Carlos” aspires to.
But those sorts of things, these petty human failings , are accessible to our mind and comprehension. The other is overwhelming and essentially incomprehensible. And so we don’t comprehend it. Turning back to the gossip daily’s to make sure we are up on the latest, while being completely uninformed about nearly anything that matters. LIke the “talking walls” in Fahrenheit 451.
This is not partisan. It is endemic to the nation, and it is somewhat predictable given the 9/11 antecedents.
As for Manning/Snowden et al. I take your point.
And it reminds of those stories that show how we have a voyeuristic need to have an enemy, hopefully one embodied not even in something so complex as a “movement” (eg, Occupy Wallstreet and its spinoffs) but in an individual.
We need someone to hate.
Like Goldstein.
And .. the (not so) funny thing is, that our version of the 2minute hate is just as effective as was described in the book.
We cohere around the mutual hate of the one who threatens us. And we know we are threatened because we are told so so incessantly. –And just as often told that “oh no these have no real impact on our security…Demonstrating that what is at issue in manning/snowden/assange/journalism/whistle blowers in general/ et al is not any particular data but the fact that anything was exposed at all. That system of the “dark arts” needs darkness to complete its work. At least until there is no more ability for resistance.
This is the scandal that does not get the attention. Or not enough in the right context, with a systemic understanding rather than a simplistic episodic one.
The few that have the public standing to stand out publicly and try to counter this narrative (G.Greenwald, Amy Goodman and many others…for ex) do so at some risk. As we have seen.
Anyway… Yours is a provocative comment in some ways. I am responding to what seems a simplistic turn of phrase… It is not, I assert, at root a partisan issue. I say we need to look deeper and stop being afraid of what we see.
Michael…..
You don’t say…. Hmmmm….. Seems like some folks are upset that the professor is only denouncing democrats….. Seems like…. It’s apt….. But…. I think it’s funny…. The only game in town….
Speaking of dark art….. Dick Cheney….. Did you hear that Halliburton admitted to destroying evidence in the gulf spill…. Go figure…. I wonder if the DOJ has the bawls to do anything…. Other than try Manning and go after Snowden……
Anonymously
No. I take it that he is saying the nation in its various levels is morally corrupt and using this current event to example the point.
If it were just the occasional individual politician, judge, or police then it would be something the body politic could handle. But it seems, if the examples on this board are any barometer, that the virus is overwhelming the immune system…
It is being attacked and dismantled at the constitutional level… and when that happens there is no limit to the venality of power. Or the depravity of those who wield it.
Just to say as a historical comparison and hopefully a provocation : What is worse? Weiner’s weiner, or Dick Cheney and his dark arts’ as manifest in wars, energy policies and systemic dismantling of the constitutional structures with such notions as unitary executive, and then such horrifics as introducing Torture as an acceptable practice, and creating the monolith that is “HOMELAND” security?
One is a venality of one order that JT well expresses. Disgusting for sure, and hopefully will be handled by the resounding defeat at the ballot box. And Carlos et al will become another salacious, maybe humorous story about the time we almost got a Mayor of such a character…. Eventually it is harmless (except as a datapoint on the general decline).
And there is the other which almost defies emotional response. It is almost too much to consider the broadsides our country has endured in the 9/11 era. (Including the financial crisis… et al.)
I think it is the inevitable result of demonizing the concept that we all have a general obligation to contribute to our society and assist those less fortunate. More and more we hear “why should I pay for someone else’s illness” or “that’s his problem” or “my kid’s out of school, I shouldn’t still be paying.” In that world, the only issue in an election is which candidate will best serve my own immediate interests.
Way back in the 1950s Dr. Erich Fromm said that narcissism was the signal character flaw of our time, and things have gotten much, much worse. In fact, things are so bad that it is difficult not to give in to the prevailing ethics. Please keep writing to keep your readers’ heads screwed on right! That the people of New York could even consider Weiner and Spitzer for public office is disgraceful.
Makes you wonder about “electorial” polls!
Small town america writ latge by electronic surveillance vs electronic social media…but perhaps it goes a bit deeper and creepier,,,after all, can we imagine J. Edgar Hover on Twitter?
Lets see the pro Obama words of wisdom…. We already have wieners pearls…..
It is indeed depressing as hell, Mr. Turley. That’s when I take a long walk and disassociate myself from all this horseshit.
I can’t believe you’re picking on these poor folks. You must hate Democrats. What are ya’ a Republican??? Send in justateacher for a similar comment.
So are you saying we have morally corrupt individuals running for office…… Oh my…. I’m aghast….. After all we are the dumping ground….. The ones that get dumped on…. The CIC on down not much of a moral code….