He Really Was Dumb Enough

Until New York Representative Anthony Weiner stood behind a podium and admitted his Twitter indiscretions, nothing anyone could have said would have changed my initial thought of giving him the benefit of the doubt. Part of the reason for this is because of who broke the story. Andrew Breitbart, after all, has cried wolf a few too many times (ACORN, Shirley Sherrod, Planned Parenthood, etc.) for me to view him as a credible source. For as much as he believes he is non-partisan, you'd have to have shit in your head where your brain should be not to realize that Breitbart has an agenda. Show me where he's gone after a Republican as fiercely and I'll reconsider.

And part of the reason I believed Weiner is because I never thought he would be so dumb as to use social media that's out there in the ether to send "lewd" photos of himself. A guy as sharp as Anthony Weiner could never put his career in jeopardy by doing something so frivolous.

I was wrong. He really was dumb enough.

I'm not one to judge someone's moral integrity, unless they tout themselves as holier than thou and wind up being a hypocrite, so I'm not going to start here. I'm sure more details will be revealed during the ethics investigation called for by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and if Weiner violated ethics rules (using Congressional equipment to send these tweets) then he'll be called to account. But until then, I'm glad that Weiner as of this point has taken the Republican lead and decided not to resign.

What he did was disappointing to me, and reprehensible conduct for a married man, but he did nothing technically illegal. He didn't engage prostitutes like David Vitter or Eliot Spitzer. He didn't have a child in an affair like John Edwards or Arnold Schwarzenegger. He didn't get arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. None of these examples exonerates Weiner's actions, but it helps in putting things in perspective.

If his career is coming to an end, it's a shame because he is a talented, smart politician who really cares about his constituency, regardless of his private failings.

As far as Breitbart is concerned, yeah, he won one. So what? The man is still a scumbag who feeds on gutter news, and his "classiness" was on display for all to see as he hijacked the Weiner press conference before Weiner even spoke. It'll take more that one story for Breitbart to have credibility in my eyes.