Weiner has made it harder for the left to be credible attack dogs
I wrote earlier today that many people are angry at Weiner because they look like fools for having defended him.
In the comments section at Salon, I found a perfect example of the sort of rage I’m talking about. The anger it expresses is based not just on personal embarrassment at having been duped and betrayed by Weiner’s lies, but on the idea that the whole thing undermines future attacks on the nefarious likes of Breitbart, et al:
the little prick [Weiner] :
made brietbart look good
made all the people who defended this pig look bad
and anyone who defends him can no longer speak about the lies bush jr told
all to save his ass from being humiliated by what he had done.
[NOTE: The comment was made in response to this article by Steve Kornacki, which dug up an incident from the beginning of Weiner’s political career, in which he won his first Democratic primary with a campaign against his opponents that Kornacki says appealed to racism. It’s an interesting “now it can be told” story, since Weiner has become damaged goods. It also reminds me—not in the charges of racism, but in the fact that Weiner may have been a ruthless bastard from the start—of another story you don’t hear much about, involving Obama’s political beginnings: his knocking previous mentor Alice Palmer and the other candidates off the ballot in his first Democratic primary.]
[ADDENDUM: And this, of course, was inevitable: the naked truth is out. Personally, I decided not to click on the photolinks there (which I haven’t posted here; my link is to an article about the photos rather than the photos themselves). I like to retain a little mystery; I’ve already had WAY too much information about Weiner². I’ve decide to call it that rather than Weinergate because, let’s face it, it’s about Weiner’s weiner.]
Your final paragraph reminds me of the fact that the person who first brought up Willie Horton in 1988 was not some racist, knuckle-dragging Republican, but then-presidential candidate Al Gore.
My goodness, some lefties sure can stink up the place!
Are there corresponding stories re Republican politicians?
The only one I can think of is Nixon vs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, but a) that was against a candidate of the other party, not a primary cheap shot, and b) despite conventional wisdom, the mudslinging there went both ways, and indeed was apparently started by Douglas calling Nixon a fascist and soft on national security (!).
Perhaps my inability to think of any reflects a paucity of knowledge. Anyone know of one?
Although I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about politics, I had never heard of Congressman Weiner until the recent Twittergate episode.
In the aftermath of Twittergate, I have seen two short videos of Weiner in action: one in front of Congress, and the other from ABC after Twittergate hit the news but before Weiner ‘fessed up.
I found Weiner very convincing in his ABC interview. IOW, he is a very good liar. Had I seen the ABC interview and read nothing about the incident before Weiner ‘fessed up, I would have been convinced from the ABC interview that Weiner was innocent.
Weiner is in the Rottweiler class of debaters, an attack dog of the highest magnitude. An attack dog has no center. An attack dog has to be trained or directed whom to attack.
Jerzy Kosinski wrote The Future is Ours, Comrade, which is a recounting of conversations he had with ordinary Russians. One chapter was devoted to a Komsomol agit-prop speaker, who had been giving speeches for years, and had adjusted his speeches in accordance with shifts in the party line. He was a man with no center to him: a plug-in speech maker. Tell him what to say: he will say it. Weiner’s performances reminded me of the Komsomol agit-prop speaker: within the space of several days he gave two speeches/interviews which contradicted each other.
That such an attack dog has defanged himself is to the good.
Who is the next one in line?
It brings me savage delight at Weiner’s implosion, but it troubles me that the Dums aren’t more vigorous defending their boy. Have they realized the steep drop in their credibility was a result of their Bush hating, state-exploding shenanigans? If they’ve smartened up, then we might have real problems in 2012.
There is no honor among thieves. And Progressive is just another word for thief.
Hong, I think there is rather a Catch-22 situation the Left is in: their politics of destruction has been effective but is now less so. They either ratchet it up and experience the blowback, or they ratchet it down and experience less destruction of their enemies. Either case produces diminishing returns.
Just wondering. If Weiner’s weiner pics get sent to forensics or ID will that be considered junk science?
Good one, SteveH! 😀
No, Weiner’s pricktures will be sent to TSA. Apparently, they’re very experience in handling junk.
I have often thought that politics is a mutual extortion racket.
It’s not a question of if but WHEN the scandal comes out. All a matter of timing and leverage.
I still think Weiner will skate on this one. The guy is a foaming at the mouth attack dog of progressive swill and his district has re-elected him 5 or 6 times. The House will not expel him. At worst he’ll be censured.
The Malevolent Toad (as Mark Steyn has dubbed him) will hop away free. He’s watching the polls, and 60% of New Yorkers, braindead idiots all, have said he did nothing even ethically wrong.
The zombielike refusal to admit defeat and retire is almost universal amongst their ranks. Really incredible. Remember when everyone was marvelling at “how much punishment Bill Clinton can take” (how much public humiliation) and still cling to office?
Remember how everyone marvelled at how much punishment Gordon Brown took and still refused to call an election? People kept saying that “surely, he’ll realize he’s lost the confidence of the people.” Touching, really. This faith that the zombies give a hoot about the will of the people.
LOL! That’s perfect.
I also think Weiner will survive this and probably get reelected if his district isn’t reapportioned. Look how many times Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy got reelected and how revered they are/were in their areas.
With apologies to Neo (and probably other readers of this blog), there’s just a different culture in the Northeast.
“”Weiner²””
< scratches head over where square root sign is on my keyboard. 🙂
Where was all this outrage on the left when they discovered Clinton had lied to everyone, including the Cabinet and Hillary?
You mean Weiner’s … tube steak?
Were the photo’s deliberately leaked to Breitbart?Was it a setup? Democrat rivalry? Charlie Schumer seems to have been irritated by this, his own , junior loudmouth…Or his recent attack on Obama’s speach on Isreal? Why is his wife not with him in this difficult hour? She is not with him, but with Hillary Clinton. There have been rumors about a lesbian affair between his wife Huma and Hillary Clinton; rumor also has it that this in turn led to the ‘merger-marriage’ with Weiner to suppress these rumors…The marriage was officiated by Bill Clinton… Think of the level of depravity, unique to -I Claudius -Imperial Washington… It would explain a lot though…
Anthony Weiner- the Woody Allen of Washington…Liberalism has been as devastating to American Jewry as it has been to American Catholicism…
the little prick [Weiner]
Apparently, he’s a coctail Weiner