Sunday, June 12, 2011

Is It Not Pathetic?

I don't mean to harp on this--after all, every comedian in America is having a field day with the subject of Anthony Wiener and his (ahem) wiener--sorry this is virtually unavoidable--which apparently was  brandished about photographically for several women in several public places on the Net and in some cases for ladies not even old enough to be considered adults. Not only is this incident so monumentally stupid that words fail me, but consider: how can a member of the United States Congress possibly think that he could get away with something like this? Unbelievable. But this whole affair is also pitifully pathetic on two levels, and you can decide which is lower:
  • The acts themselves. The whole notion of parading your naked self before strangers. Well, I don't care how you do it, mama always told me that was something you just didn't do. Maybe I'm just too old and not hip enough about everything that's happening out there in cyberspace. Apparently it's a regular meat market out there. Can guys really find women to bed this way? I mean what's up with this? I fear I'm showing my age.
  • The ludicrous attempt by Wiener to first of all lie his way out of his guilt by concocting phantasmal stories that only invited even more slavering hounds of the lamestream and low road media to jump on him, and second of all, Wiener's attempt after his astonishing press conference where he 'fessed up to everything, his pathetic attempt to carry on as if nothing happened and this will all go away. It's the equivalent to standing in a house that's burning down around you and claiming it's just a little heat wave that will pass.
Here's the thing. Up until this incident, I rather liked Wiener . . . I saw him frequently on Rachel Maddow and admired his unflinching progressivism. But, dude, you are so far beyond my caring about what happens to you now . . . just slink your sorry ass out of Washington, go home, and for God's sake, shut up. Don't worry. Give it a few years, and you can become a respected commentator like Elliot Spitzer

2 comments:

karen lindsey said...

i liked him too, for the same reasons you did. and dislike him now, for the same things you do. his 'sexting' might make sense in a 15 year old having a grand love affair with his own genitals, but by your 40s, you should be well past that stage. and his trying to lie his way out of it for a week shows a level of sheer stupidity that is mind boggling. we're far enough into the social-media age that anyone with a brain would know you can't do stuff like that without risking its being seen by others than its intended audience, and that is doubly true for celebrities, politicians, anyone in the public eye.

at the same time, what he can't be blamed for is the media obsession with his behavior. that's what makes it take away from real politics, not the fact that he did it.

i'm not surprised that the right, in spite of its own crew of forgiven sinners, would smugly call for his resignation. but i'm---well, not surprised either---by the democrats adding to the publicity by smugly demanding his resignation. that decision seems to me to belong to his constuents.

even more, i'm struck by the cynical show of naivity on the part of both parties. does anybody over 7 believe politicians are more moral than the rest of us? it's a nice idea, but so is santa claus. george washington never really confessed to chopping down the cherry tree. if there were such a tree and he did chop it down, he'd tell the press that some brit did it and tried to discredit him. and then he'd go and chop down another one.

let him stay and do whatever of his work he can get done, until the next elections. maybe he and mr vitter will become good friends. they certainly deserve each other. but vitter does harm to the rest of us. wiener just illustrates the naked emperor theory, but at least he'll do what he can to fight poverty and militarism.

Unknown said...

You have kinder instincts than I, Karen. Although I certainly cannot disagree that these pols of either party are never so repulsive than when they are in full sanctimonious mode. And hell, if that Ensign, that slimeball GOP toad from Nevada, can hang around till he's good and ready to leave, well the same should be allowed for our sad case.