EASTON, Md, June 10, 2011 — First off, let’s set the record straight: Congressman Anthony Weiner should step down. Not take a leave of absence as he suggests, but leave.
Anthony Weiner is not stepping down from his position, and he should!
* For feminists, his salacious actions were despicable.
* For Liberals, Weiner has betrayed their core values.
* For Democrats, he has taken the focus off their big issues.
* For voters, the perception of Congress is further corrupted by the kind of representatives we elect.
* For the country, his antics make us question what kind of society we have become.
* For comedians, Weiner is the mother lode of puns.
* And for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of the House of Representatives, he is a major thorn in her side.
Pelosi is super furious at the Congressman because she and the Democratic leadership asked him to resign and he refused, hoping to buy himself some time. Sadly, it looks as though Weiner is determined to tough it out.
Here's why:
His people leaked to the press that his wife, who is now playing the “good wife” game, has encouraged him to hang in there.
After all, his constituents continue to support him. A Marist poll on June 9th found that 56% of registered voters in Weiner's NY-9 District believe he should stay in office, while 33% think he should resign. Only 12% are unsure.
His staff claims that his phone lines are jammed with support from the voters of District 9, which encompasses parts of Queens and Brooklyn.
But will they vote for him in 2012? As of last week, 30% of those same voters swore they would, while 31% said no way. A 38% plurality insisted it was too soon to know whom they’d vote for.
Will He Stay Or Will He Go?
There are those who say, Weiner’s future is up to his district’s voters and not up to Congress. For now, his district seems to be ok with the fact that he broke the House rules that prohibit conduct that discredits the chamber not to mention the crude and rude comments he posted about some of his Congressional colleagues.
So unless even more unsavory photos or sexting show up, Weiner could ride it out. However, that’s a big unless, since nearly every day more incriminating “evidence” of Weiner’s lascivious behavior pops up.
Last year, when Congressman Chris Lee of NY District 26 bared his chest on Craigslist, trolling for women, Majority Leader John Boehner showed him the door. Within hours Lee was gone.
Boehner had seen first hand the damage Republican Congressman Mark Foley inflicted on the GOP by refusing to leave immediately, although he finally resigned.
So far, that’s not the way Congressman Weiner is playing it. When he finally returns to Congress after his hiatus to make himself "healthier," he may have second thoughts, finding himself treated as a pariah by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
Would he be able to withstand their withering looks and cold shoulders for another 18 months before deciding whether to run again or not?
Weiner has always been a brash maverick in Congress, an in-your-face kind of guy who has not endeared himself to fellow Democrats on the Hill.
Whether hogging the floor to excoriate the Republicans about health care for New York’s first responders or trash talking on the ice hockey rink, Weiner’s style has always been “take no prisoners.”
For some of us out here in the hinterlands that was just great. We were awed when he called out the President and Congress over the Health Care bill (Affordable Care Act).
In fact, he introduced an amendment to President Obama's ACA (HR 3200) to replace it with HR 676, the single-payer bill. It did not pass, but for those on the Left, it was a righteous act.
Men Behaving Badly, But Why?
Learning that our favorite guy on the Left is involved in risky business has left many of us on the Left bruised and angry. How could you, Congressman? is our lament.
Right now, there are as many theories as there are armchair psychologists, trying to untangle the motivations of men like Anthony Weiner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and John Edwards to name three recent headliners.
What made them do it, Americans ask, scratching their heads. Too much testosterone? Power-crazed predators? Egos gone wild?
Once they were at the pinnacle of their careers. Respected and lauded, one was California’s movie star governor and another a viable Presidential candidate.
And they threw it all away because they have no control over their id?
It doesn’t make sense, no matter how you look at it. Or perhaps it’s because as a feminist, I have never understood this kind of male behavior. This is much more than boys will be boys.
I truly doubt there will ever be a scandal involving a woman serving in the House or Senate, tweeting her intimate parts to her followers, much less seducing an intern.
Reverse sexism, you say. Really? Then please explain such lecherous behavior.
Fortunately for Weiner, his constituents in the Marist poll are more forgiving of his repulsive actions than most of us.
Of those interviewed, “46% viewed the scandal as solely a lapse in personal judgment.” Another 10% think it makes them question his professional judgment while “29% are not confident in either his personal or professional judgment.” The remaining 15% don’t view this as a judgment issue.
Too bad Congressman Weiner didn’t understand women better. Then all of this could have been avoided.
If the Congressman wanted to beguile the opposite sex, he shouldn’t have sent a crotch shot, wrapped in grey underwear or not. Women, it turns out, are not turned on by male packaging.
Interestingly, psychological studies have shown that men’s eyes dilate when shown a picture of a naked woman. Women’s eyes dilate when they see a photo of a baby.
Weiner should have just tweeted his baby picture.
To contact Catherine Poe, see above. Her work appears in Ad Lib in the Communities at the Washington Times. She can also be heard on the Democrats for America's Future webcast at http://www.americasdemocrats.org.
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