Tag: Anthony Weiner

Republican jerks endlessly heckling former Congressman Anthony Weiner

Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner currently holds no public office, is not a written or television pundit anywhere and is generally out of political life outside of merely commenting on it as a civilian. So why are some Republican outlets still hecktoring him years after he was a threat to them? Have you people no decency?

Fine. Potential poor choice of words since decency is what gave Weiner his scarlet letter in the first place but that doesn’t excuse the surrounding details of his situation: mainly the fact that he isn’t in a position in power or influence anymore, so making him the object of ridicule is punching-down in a distasteful way in my opinion.

For those of you who forgot or never knew: Congressman Weiner accidentally publicly tweeted a picture of an erection visible through his underwear when he meant to send it privately to a girl he was e-flirty with via sexy pics and messages. He denied it at first and then came clean about it when that strategy failed and blah blah blah. Okay – fine. We get it. It’s funny cuz of his name, cuz it’s definitely a skeezy thing to do while married and usually a skeezy thing to do even if not and all that jazz – okay. He resigned. A couple years afterward he ran for mayor of NYC and didn’t win the primary.

Yet for the past several years that he has been out of office I will randomly see hit pieces on the former congressman in Conservative media and they are always 100% gratuitous and bizarre.

Today it’s gotten so bad that they’re even hassling him over tweeting about traffic in NYC.

https://twitter.com/anthonyweiner/status/645223162293157888
https://twitter.com/anthonyweiner/status/645225736408838144
https://twitter.com/anthonyweiner/status/645232567508185089

Sounds like fair and rationale criticism to me. Also sounds like a guy tweeting about traffic… So under what circumstances are you the cool guy in an exchange where someone says “well THIS sure seems to be a dumb use of public resources that is inconveniencing the citizens of the city” and you respond with “oh yea? REMEMBER WHEN YOU SEND DICKPICS TO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET? BURN!”

Wtf, people…

Worse is the adoption of this one photo of Weiner scowling that has become the go-to clipart in hit pieces on him, similar to the Bill O’Reilly cry-face.

I admit that I always liked Congressman Weiner so maybe i’m being blind to what is fair dialog and treatment of a public figure in such circumstances but I think it’s gratuitous to randomly keep recycling a sexting scandal when the dude talks about anything as non-related as unnecessary street closures.

Pick your battles, Republicans. Save your fire for the bullies, not the Weiners.

With Hooker betrayals and Howard heckler: Weiner Resigns

Liberal Superhero Anthony Weiner has announced he is resigning from congress because of the whole “it’s been revealed that he sends dick pics to girls he’s not married to on twitter and facebook” thing, giving a speech that sounded a lot more like a campaign speech than a resignation speech.

Weiner was a left wing rockstar in Congress, my own favorite congressman and would have almost certainly been elected mayor of New York in 2 years if this mess hadn’t been revealed and he went with his plans to run in that election (for which he had already raised $4.5 million in donations)

The speech was interrupted by a heckler that was allegedly a Howard Stern plant. This summary of how it went down is a good micro-transcript of it all:

Weiner kicks off resignation statement w/nostalgia, family reminiscences. He is you.

“I am here today to Resign.” -Anthony Weiner

”Yeah! Goodbye pervert!” -Heckler

“He is not with us” -Heckler

“Are you more than 7 inches?”-Heckler

This is after more nude photos were released as a domino effect of betrayal by the hookers Weiner talked to, releasing his private Facebook conversations where he, for example, talked about banging that chick in Nevada from behind so they could both watch the Daily Show and photo’s he sent to various ladies of him nude or partially nude, Myspace style, from places that included (facepalm), the congressional gym…

While I initially supported Weiner, as many did, when he was claiming it was a hack and then still even when he said it was a prank and then still again when he said he couldn’t be for sure that the picture wasn’t of him – I had to abandone ship once he switched tactic from “you guys are silly. this isn’t a big deal. lets move on” to a creepy level of dishonesty and passionate denial. The fact that he also hasn’t registered his car got me annoyed since financial hypocrisy, while less attention getting than alleged sexual hypocrisy, is a lot more meaningful. Dude, don’t be a vocal advocate for bigger government and higher taxes while cheating the government out of taxes yourself. Much like fellow “raise taxes for everyone but me” Democrat Charlie Rangel however, no one really seems to care about this point – especially when there are dick pictures to discuss.

The weirdest hooker-domino in this series has been porn “actress” Ginger Lee who did the old Gloria Alred Press Conference thing when throwing Weiner under the bus. On the surface it looks like he coached her on how to lie to the press to cover up for him – which is true and happened – however, she also asked for help lying so… wtf. In one email to Weiner, sent on Jan. she says “Just tell me what to do or say, this stuff is so far out of my league I can’t even pretend to know what to do” and Weiner responded, “I want you to make decisions that help you be healthy and sane. We need to be zen about this.”

Weirder still is that in her press conference she stressed that she avoided dirty talk with Weiner, as if she has a reputation of sexual purity she has to protect. Idk what that’s about, but whatever. Hopefully this goes mostly-away now that he’s resigning and he can hurry up and start working on his comeback. This is the right thing for him to do.

UPDATE: Allahpundit said it better than I on the weirdness of a pornstar stressing to make clear that she didn’t talk dirty to a guy on twitter:

I’m confounded by her claim that she didn’t reciprocate any of Weiner’s sexual overtures in their chats. She has no reputation to protect so there’s no obvious reason for her to lie, but she’s also been known to say — publicly — “I want to have sexual relations with Anthony Weiner” and “He can get buck wild anytime I’m around.” He finally noticed her and sent her an e-mail, which escalated into sexual come-ons, and her response was to … try to steer the conversation back around to the debt ceiling or something? Everyconversation? Huh. Behold the world’s most cerebral, politically focused former porn star.

Alan Colmes was unhappy about the resignation and I think this is a good clip despite the uploader inappropriately calling it a “meltdown” (slight passion in ones delivery is not a meltdown, guys).

Weiner’s Worst Crime is lying to his friends

The latest poll from his district has 56 percent of his constituents saying he shouldn’t resign.

Democratic analyst at Fox News Kirsten Powers was lied to by her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Weiner, about being hacked and defended him publicly on Fox and in text with that false info.

Full disclosure: I briefly dated Anthony almost a decade ago after meeting him at a postcampaign party for the 2002 New York gubernatorial race, during which I had worked as Andrew Cuomo’s press secretary. The relationship didn’t last, but we stayed friends. While we were dating, he traveled with my family to Costa Rica for Christmas, and years later I spent Thanksgiving with his when I was stranded in New York City because of work. He was a strong support when my father died suddenly from a heart attack seven years ago. When a relationship I had been hopeful about ended in 2006, he cleared his calendar to spend a Saturday with me and reassure me about my decision. We only dated for three months, and he was for the most part a doting boyfriend and my family was very fond of him.

In the past few years, we didn’t see each other or communicate much, though when my husband’s parents were recently trapped in Egypt during the revolution, he helped to connect me to his wife, Huma, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to facilitate their getting out.

That’s the nice part. The rest of the column is devastating…

Citizens are arrested and prosecuted when they lie to the government, even if it was over something personal. Why is there no penalty for when the government lies to the citizens? no matter what he reason.

It’s his ticket to prestige and women, after all; it’s his conduit to the media, for whom he loves serving up soundbites; and realistically, it’s his only route to becoming mayor. They’ll have to drag him from the House chamber kicking and screaming. Watch what she says too about what distinguishes Weiner’s scandal from other sex scandals. It’s not that he lied about it to try to cover it up. It’s that he lied to everyone, from his wife to his friends to his aides to his colleagues to his donors to the president. And of course, to himself: If this guy seriously thought he could run New York City while texting photos of his schwanz to random female acquaintances online without anyone finding out, his egomania and self-delusion are so severe as to require medical attention. It’s seriously crazy. And not only did he lie, he did it in one of the cheapest, most demagogic ways possible by trying to pawn the whole thing off on the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” As sleazy as Clinton’s, Vitter’s, and Spitzer’s scandals each were, I never thought it defined each man’s entire character; with Weiner, I do. I think KP agrees, which is why she seems so palpably distressed when talking and writing about this.

The Politician ShameFace

The names change but the faces stay the same….


The New York Times called Dan Hill, the president of Sensory Logic, a market-research firm in Minneapolis that uses facial expressions to quantify emotional response to explain the face that every politician makes when confessing they lied about something naughty. He explained:

Lips pursed and pulled tight is a sign of anger. Anger as an emotion typically means you feel like you’re not in control of circumstances. It arises from lack of progress, confusion, feelings that one’s being dealt with unfairly, i.e. resentment. These are powerful men used to being in charge. So it likely signifies feeling vulnerable (not in control).

The chin raiser, where the chin boss pushes upward, causing the lower lip to push upward, could also be called an upside-down smile. It’s a muscle movement implicated in expressions of anger, disgust and sadness.

Disgust is an emotion that relates back, in evolutionary terms, to “bad taste” or “bad smell.” The bad-taste version is as if to protect the mouth from taking in something that is poisonous. Clearly, these scandals are (sometimes fatally) poisonous to the politicians’ careers. It’s as if the whiff of scandal tastes bad to them.

Eyes and head down both correspond to sadness, i.e., disappointment in oneself. Regret. Like disgust, it’s a sign of withdrawal, as if to remove oneself from what has caused shame or embarrassment.

The basic package you’ve got here is anger, disgust and sadness.

Weiner Confesses

Like Jon Stewart, who has been friends with Congressman Weiner for years and relayed his reluctance on making jokes about this Weinergate scandal, I was disappointed at todays news when a press conference was called to admit that he did in fact send the picture of his Member of sexual Congress.



I thought his speech and confession and answers to the reporters questions afterward went as perfect as a situation like this could have gone. “I was trying to protect my wife. I was trying to protect myself” and he apologizes. Perfect response to me. and no excuses, even. He says he wasn’t on drugs, wasn’t drinking – it’s all him and his fault. bra-vo, dude. This press conference only makes me like him more.

The only creepy thing that brakes my heart is re-watching footage from, what I thought were kickass “throwin it right back in your face” exercises in Awesome and now are revealed to be really scuzzy politician Clintonian weaseling.

They’re reminiscent of Clinton to their performance core: attacking the people reporting on the story, ridiculing the media for covering the story at all, then getting angry at reporters with more brash ridicule paired with firm “I. Did. Not” super accusatory defenses. I know we’re all taught that all politicians are like that but I don’t like that “they’re all evil” kind of cynicism. This certainly is a win for the cynics though.

An important thing to note though is that the “it was just about sex” line used so often to defend Clinton’s in-your-face denial/lying about one of his affairs was an inaccurate soundbyte that was spread because it sounds persuasive. The reason there was a drawn out battle over something that started as sex was because Clinton was accused of something and lied under oath in denying it.

The truth is that if both Weiner and Clinton had given quick “i’ve sinned and i’m sorry. gonna deal with it on my own time and get back to working for my constituents, thanks” response right away, both their poll and press would be high. However, Clinton comitted perjury as President of the United states and Weiner actually really did just “lie about sex”. There will be an ethics probe (see pic below and lul)

Heres some other stuff:





The most painful one though is this re-posting of a 1996 Cosmo article touting Weiner as a possible future president, which I think would have been difficult given his name and nothing else. He would have been an excellent VP if not for this…

A Boehner in the house

After the sweeping Republican victories in the November elections, the newly elected House members are just today taking their offices in Washington and since Republicans now have a majority in Congress, the Speaker of the House (formerly San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi) is now Ohio’s John Boehner (R). His name is pronounced “Bainer” because… he said so. which bugs me.

The dude shoulda just changed his friggin name instead of making everyone pronounce it “bay-ner”. NY Congressman Anthony Weiner (D) doesn’t make everyone pronounce his name “Whiner” – well, I guess that would be bad for other reasons – or “Winner”, so why can’t the new Speaker take a que?

These aren’t the only other name silliness I’ve noticed. In the 2004 Democratic Primary election, Joe Lieberman’s campaign chairs last name was Gobush and Lieberman pronounced it “Gobish” instead of “Go Bush” while acknowledging the humor of it in interviews and I thought that was the wrong move. He should have said “Ya his name is ‘Go Bush’. He’s my campaign chair precicely because I’m gonna be the guy to get Bush to Go out of public service and out of a job”. zing. but no…

I hold politicians to a higher standard because – duh – we all do, but Brett Favre is the worst committee of this name-crime. He was just like “everyone pretend that its “Farve” and say it like that, and everyone totally did without question and thats not even pronunciation – thats changing friggin spelling.

Theres a newly elected congressman in Idaho or something named Crapo and he’s saying its “cray-poe”. pleez… People: change your name if you dont like it. just cuz we go along with it for sports heroes doesnt mean we like it.

Here’s Boehner accepting the gavel from an awkwardly wide-smiled Pelosi (her actual speech was hella long):

Here’s Boehners speech:

And here is Liberal radio talk show host Mike Malloy explaining the reason the Boehner cries so much during speeches and interviews (true) is because he’s a drunk. I don’t get the connection so much, but now that this dude is in a higher position of power, you can expect a lot more commentaries like the one below:

Also – I have no idea whether this Malloy video was made by a fan or a hater as there are signs of both in it. weird.