Anthony Weiner
On May 27th Anthony Weiner sent a tweet with a picture of his crotch to a 21-year-old Washington woman who had been following him on Twitter. He removed the picture soon after. A blogger and Co-Author of Hollywood, Interrupted Andrew Breitbart released the pictures Weiner had sent, which started the media circus that followed.Weiner, who is married to Huma Abedin, tried to cover up what he had done by insisting to the press that he believed his account had been hacked. He insisted he would have the matter investigated. Hoping all his problems would disappear, Weiner told the media he would not discuss the matter any longer. That’s tactic didn’t work and more pictures were released. It was found that Weiner had being sending questionable photos of himself to women on twitter. Its was also reveled that Weiner didn’t meet any of the women who were sent these pictures. He didn’t have sexual intercourse with any of these women. Weiner insisted he would not leave office and vowed to continue doing his job. Over a short time pressure from members of his own party pushed Weiner to eventually leave office.
I’m not here to defend Anthony Weiner’s actions. Sending questionable images of yourself to other women when your married is not acceptable. With that said my feeling is that it wasn’t enough to remove him from office. If you look at the history of political sandals you will see that Anthony Weiner, even if its socially unacceptable to do what he did, did not betray the people of New York. He did not break any laws. His personal indiscretions did not shine a light on any political hypocrisy. I’ve never seen a politician take it to the republicans like Anthony Weiner. When the democrats seem unwilling to take a solid stand against the republicans Weiner stood out as the defender of the people. It’s ridiculous that Weiner was forced out when other politicians have done so much worse and some of them didn’t leave office. Lets see how bad it can get.
We begin with David Vitter. Vitter’s phone number was spotted during an investigation of an escort service ran by Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Pelfrey was also known as the D.C Madam. Even though she was convicted, Vitter was not charged with any crime and was still reelected in 2010.
Eric Massa
Eric Massa resigned because of pressure after he was found that he was sexually harassing a male staffer. He admitted to doing it. He also said he was the victim of a conspiracy against him….but he said he did it. You figure that one out. It was,also revealed that Massa paid his wife’s salary using campaign funds even after he resigned from office.
You may remember Mark Sanford. As governor of South Carolina he told his wife he was going hiking on the Appalachian trail and disappeared on June 18 2009. His family didn’t know where he was. Father’s day came and went and no contact was made. He returned June 24 of 2009. It was revealed that Sanford did not hike the Appalachian trail but instead he left to Argentina to have an affair with a woman from there.
John Ensign, representative of Nevada had an affair with a woman named Cindy Hampton. Now get this, Cindy Hampton was the wife of top aide and Ensign’s best friend Doug Hampton. Doug Hampton was reported to have chased Ensign in an airport parking lot after discovering a text message Ensign sent to Cindy Hampton, making the affair very clear. Ensign was also found to have violated campaign fiance laws. Ensign was accused of destroying evidence and trying to pay to keep people quiet about the matter.
Mark Foley, representative from Florida was found to have been sending sexually explicit instant messages and emails to teenaged boys who worked in the Congressional page program. This was going on for more than ten years. While he was doing this, he was the Chairman of the House Caucus on missing and exploited children. One of his biggest issues he fought for while he was in office was the fight against child pornography.
Larry Craig, United States senator and former senate liaison for Mitt Romney‘s 2007 presidential campaign was arrested after trying to solicited sex from a male undercover police officer in an airport bathroom. He fought to exclude violence against gays and lesbians as a hate crime by voting against the Federal Hate Crimes law. He voted to give states the right to refuse same-sex marriages from other states,which is a right that states already have. Even with all of that he did not resign and finished his term.
Joe Stagni
Not to long ago we saw pictures emerge of congressman Christopher Lee. It was revealed that Lee, husband and father of two posted his profile on Craig’s list and describe himself as divorced. Craig had been soliciting a male to female transsexual. He resigned from office shortly thereafter.
Bob Allen, representative of Florida and the Florida chairman of John McCain’s presidential Campaign in 2007 was arrested for soliciting oral sex from an undercover officer in a public bathroom. Allen offered twenty dollars so he could perform oral sex. When asked why he offered the officer oral sex Allen responded by saying the officer was “a burly black man” and he [Allen] “didn’t want to become another statistic.” You can add racist to the list under Bob Allen.
Then about a week ago it was found that Joe Stagni, a married councilman from Louisiana, had sexual relations with a female administration employee named Annamaria Pizzolato. Stagni sent inappropriate pictures of himself to her via the internet. Later Pizzolato was fired by Mayor Mike Yenni for unspecified reasons. Stagni is still in office.
A little time has passed now since the Weiner Scandal broke. The fact that the democrats are so quick to get ride of one of their best people shows that they are out of touch and are not willing to stand up to smoke and mirrors. While Jan Brewer is passing racist laws and Rick Wilson is waging war on our unions, Nancy Pelosi chooses to ask Anthony Weiner to step down. This makes little to no sense to me. The democrats should have defended Weiner. He was the best at calling out the Republicans for their games. One of the things I love him for is when he blasted the republicans for trying to stop the funding to help first responders get medical coverage.
He fought for us. We let him go. It will come to bite the democrats on the ass when its time to come up with the passion and determination to battle the republicans. The cowardly democrats seem to be not so cowardly when it come to attacking each other. Anthony Weiner was a media distraction. There are real issue in the world. We are fighting three wars, the republicans are holding the debt ceiling hostage so that they can get more and we can get less, but Anthony Weiner must go. Like I said before, what Weiner did was wrong but the punishment should come only from his wife. The only person he betrayed. As a political figure, I would vote for him every time. If he was running for president I would choose Wiener over Obama. Weiner would fight were Obama would back off. You may not agree with that last statement but ask yourself this question. Would Anthony Weiner allow what president Obama has allowed the republicans to do during his presidency? You can’t win every battle but he would have been present for the fight. The fight for the people.
- Why Push Weiner Out But Not Vitter? (politicalwire.com)
- Republican Hypocrisy on Weiner [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
- Why Anthony Weiner’s Resignation Is Bad For America (blogs.forbes.com)
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