No shaming Weiner

By Michael Graham
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Excerpt:
In other words, Democrats can do whatever they want to whomever they want and their loyal, unthinking voter base will stand with them.

The perfect example is our own Barney Frank. He’s had one boyfriend soliciting from the Democratic congressman’s condo; another boyfriend was on the Fannie Mae payroll while Frank oversaw its budget; and a third pal busted for pot while Frank demurred that he “is no outdoorsman.”

And still the knee-jerk liberals of Newton re-elected him overwhelmingly.

For a significant part of the Democratic base, lying, cheating and sleazy behavior are acceptable as long as the sleaze in question is a tireless defender of liberal policies.

Anthony Weiner is tireless, all right, which is why he’s not leaving.

Why should he? As a Democrat, he’s among friends. the rest

Drumbeat grows for Weiner to step down



Requiem for a Lightweight: Deconstructing the Weiner Affair
...As a society, we conditioned Anthony Weiner to believe normal rules of human behavior did not apply to him. Like a star athlete or Hollywood icon whose serial misconduct finally breaks through the exasperatingly capricious threshold of public consciousness, Weiner pathetically struggled to grasp the seriousness of his dire circumstances. Like so many others before him, our prolonged indifference left him unable to understand his suddenly precarious position because he had gotten away with so much for so long.
Congressman Weiner felt secure in abusing the public trust, wielding political power in pursuit of self aggrandizement, squandering federal resources in pursuit of prurient thrills all for one reason: he knew that no one was minding the store. His assumption of impunity, in our current state, was actually the much more logical risk analysis.
We cannot go on like this. If American self-government is to survive another century in a hostile world, we must embrace once again the role of citizen participants in the determination of our own future. Quite frankly, we entrust our fate to the good offices of Anthony Weiner and company at our own peril. The remarkable period in which we could indulge such foolishness without serious consequences is fast coming to a close.