Anthony Weiner announced he was running for mayor on Wednesday. And a poll has him coming in second, after City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Of course, haters gonna hate and when Andrew Cuomo was asked how he would respond if Weiner won the mayor’s race, he said: “Shame on us.” In fact, the real shame is that Weiner resigned from congress, after Democrats, in typical fashion, threw him under the bus and called for him to step down. The real shame is when right wing politicians condemn and attempt to control the sex lives of others, especially when they engage in sexual behavior they would publicly scorn. This should be the real scandal. But sadly, it never is.
Don’t get me wrong. What Weiner did — sexting with women other than his wife and accidentally tweeting a sexual message he meant to DM — was stupid. Just as what Bill Clinton in The Oval Office was stupid. And Weiner’s denying sexting with women was dishonest. Just as Clinton’s denial of having “sexual relations with that woman” was dishonest.
But what Anthony Weiner did not warrant a resignation. Just as what Bill Clinton did didn’t warrant impeachment. What warrants impeachment is something like the Iran-Contras affair, in which the Reagan Administration sold weapons to Iran, violating an arms embargo, to fund the right wing murderous Contras in Nicaragua, violating a congressional amendment which specifically prohibited funding this counter-insurgency group. What is impeachable is lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq to trick people into supporting an unjust war. The Contras terrorized countless civilians and killed at least 30,000. The War in Iraq claimed the lives of as many as 650,000 Iraqis and nearly 5,000 Americans. But neither Reagan nor Bush ever faced the threat of impeachment. (Though, to his credit, Weiner did vote yes on a bill to impeach Bush over lying about WMDs.)
katiehalper.com 