Wiener’s Weiner and the Animal Politic

Photo used without permission from  Robby Virus

I suspect that by the time you read this, Representative Anthony Wiener from the State of New York will have resigned his post. Unless  you’ve been floating down the Green River for the last couple of weeks, by now you know about the infamous twit pics Wiener sent to a variety of different women – pictures of his, uh hum, package. Initially I would have said stick it out (no pun intended?), fight through it, but that was when Wiener was alleging only one picture was sent. Since then the thing has snowballed and now it’s more or less out of control. I’m not so bothered by the indiscretions (though I’m not married to the man) as I am by the cavalcade of lies Wiener has told since the gig was up; lies for no reason – the truth was hanging over his head like an anvil. What is the point in persisting in lying when you know the truth is right around the corner in the form of a snide, moral crusader who is telling you he has the goods?

This is a real shame because Wiener is a smart man and one of the few leaders in Washington who can actually articulate the progressive agenda, and make it sound feasible. He is also a staunch advocate of women’s reproductive rights – a voice desperately needed in a leadership body that is careening hard to the right.

This maddens me. Anthony Wiener is a very intelligent man; he should have been smart enough to know better than this; he had to be aware that there are people out there who want to get him. I know there are those of you out there saying “but this shouldn’t matter, it should be about his leadership, and his politics – not his personal shenanigans…” and I am with you. But let’s face it folks, it is 2011, and that ship has sailed. Talk to Bill Clinton or, better yet, Gary Hart about that one. These folks know the new rules of the game and they need to play by them. We are in desperate times, wherein the whole balance of this country’s character is on the line. Andrew Breitbart is only one of an army of right-wing McCarthyists who are just waiting for the opportunity to pounce – give those lizards a reason and they are tearing at sinew and drinking blood.

Nothing New Under the Sun, Yet

Politics is an ugly, ugly game. Something about wielding that kind of power must corrode the soul – or maybe the souls who choose to go into politics are already corrupted and void. But that being said, this is far from the first sexual scandal to transpire in politics on the Federal level. In fact way back in 1796 then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton was discovered to be having an affair with a married woman. Hamilton was also married, and once the affair surfaced, he was blackmailed by his lover’s husband. Since then there has been a steady stream of sexual indiscretions, ranging from prostitutes to child molestation to alleged satanic ritual abuse.

No, the human animal hasn’t changed that much over the last couple of hundred years – heck probably not in the last five thousand years for that matter. We’ll just have to keep hoping and waiting for this next phase in the development of our collective consciousness to transpire.

madbob@madbob.com