Anthony Weiner's official congress photo.
Disgraced former congressman and husband to top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner has been caught up in another sex scandal. Politico. Weiner, who had already had to resign in disgrace because of sexting scandal, sent another text to a woman that was not his wife according to report by the New York Post (link not safe for work/sanity). Amazingly, the picture showed him in a lewd state while his young child was in bed with him. His wife, Huma Abedin, top aide and personal friend of Hillary Clinton has announced that she is leaving him. Trump praised Abedin's descion but condemned the fact that Weiner was able to get so close to the Clinton campaign saying that Weiner was a security threat. Trump has had a long history of attacking Weiner ever since his original sexting scandal broke out.
Pervert alert. @RepWeiner is back on twitter. All girls under the age of 18, block him immediately.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
My Comment:
This is typical politician behavior, so why cover this case? Well for one thing it's great proof of the concept of nominative determinism. The guy was named Weiner and showed his wiener to people, again and again. If your name really does effect what you do in your life then Weiner is great proof of that concept. At the very least he will be the go to example when people are trying to explain the concept of nominative determinism.
As for the scandal itself, it's pretty clear that Weiner is a sick guy. Even if you disagree with Trump, you have to admit that he was right about Weiner being a pervert. Let's look at the circumstances here. Your wife is in the middle of the most important campaign in her life and you are desperately trying to improve your image so you can go back to having a political career of your own. Your wife is politically unpopular target of the other party and you have even made the candidate from the other side hate you. You have already gotten in trouble for sexting someone in the past, which has caused untold damage to your career and marriage. What do you do?
1. Keep a low profile and out of the news.
2. Text a woman who is not your wife pictures of you in an aroused state while in bed with a small child.
If you chose #2, congratulations, you are Anthony Weiner and a complete idiot. I can't imagine how Weiner thought that this was a good idea. There was very little chance of him getting away with this, especially since the GOP is gunning for him and his wife.
I don't really buy the idea that anyone is compelled to do things like this. Weiner obviously got something out of texting photos like this, but I doubt this was an issue of him being compelled to do this. I don't buy him as being mentally ill. Instead I think he is just a guy that wanted to be with a lot of women and may have become a politician just so he would have access to them.
As for Huma Abedin, I am not convinced her marriage was anything but a sham in the first place. The Politico article certainly suggested that it was a sham after the first scandal. My guess is that she married Weiner for political reasons, besides whatever else she felt for him. They might have been in love, but there were political considerations as well. At the time she was less powerful and famous then Weiner was. She stuck with Weiner after the first scandal because she, and the Democratic Party, though he could be reformed. He hasn't and now she is dumping him, especially since her role is now more important then anything Weiner has ever done.
Will this have an impact on the election? Well, I probably wouldn't be covering it if it didn't have one right? First, there is the obvious impact this is going to have on Huma Abedin's job performance. Getting a divorce is a difficult prospect when you aren't a media and political target working in the most divisive and insane political campaign in recent memory. Abedin is likely going through hell right now and is probably dying of embarrassment. I can't imagine she will be doing her job as effectively as she could be. As much as I dislike her personally and hate the campaign she is working for, I actually do feel sorry for her here.
Other then that does this scandal hurt Hillary Clinton directly? Yes, but only slightly. Right now Hillary Clinton's name is being attached to a perverts name and that can't be good for her. But do I buy Trump's argument that it showed bad judgement to let Weiner become so close to the campaign? Not really. He's her top aides wife, and didn't have a direct roll with the campaign. And if the Politico article was correct it was a sham marriage in the first place. I doubt he had much opportunity to provide a security risk, other then for potential blackmail. With everything out in the open now even that shouldn't be a problem anymore.
More importantly though, the Weiner sex scandals will probably draw comparisons to Bill Clinton's own horrible sex scandals. Indeed, when you compare what Weiner has done to what Bill Clinton has been accused of doing, it's not even close. Weiner is a pervert but Clinton has used and abused women throughout his political career. Anything that draws attention to that fact, and this scandal probably will, is bad for the Clinton campaign. My guess is that the media will downplay the obvious comparisons, but the attack ads write themselves.
As for Weiner himself, his career has to be over now right? People will forgive a lot but I don't think he can recover from this. Cheating on his wife yet again is pretty terrible, but sending a picture to someone that shows him in an aroused state while his kid is right next to him is incredibly bad. I'm not suggesting that he is a pedophile or anything, but that does push this over the line from a simple sex scandal to borderline child abuse. Remember the old saying about politicians getting away with anything except being found in bed with a dead woman or a live boy? Well he just did the 2nd one. His career is done. Hopefully we never have to hear about this loser again after this election is over with and hopefully that child is going to be in a better environment with him not around.
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