Political & Elections

soccerguy315 · Guru

RE: Wienergate

pima · Guru

I have to ask these questions.

1. If he took the pics in the Congressional Gym is that considered an ethic violation?

2. How did he manage to take these pics without being noticed? Were there not people around?

3. Why as taxpayers are we providing this bennie in this economy.

The AD military members assigned to the Pentagon must pay a gym fee. Yes, it is nominal, but they are required to pass physical fitness tests yrly to stay in. We don't require that for our elected officials, PLUS their staff also gets FREE use just like the MOC gets FREE use.

So if I have it correctly, Cong Weiner used the FREE gym paid for with tax dollars to pose for pics and post, but our military would be drummed out of their service for doing the same thing and must pay for membership!

Not saying either scenario is right, just illustrating that the elected official gets a freebie by society and has power to condemn others (military) for doing the same thing, even if they are paying out of pocket.

longprime · Guru

lol.

without them politicians, we'd never get a good laugh. If we elect more of them we would be on the floor

evileye

-- Edited by longprime on Monday 13th of June 2011 07:50:09 AM

catahoula · Guru

With your interest in dogs, lp, surely you've heard that old joke, the one where the little boy asks his dad "why does our dog lick himself all the time?" and his dad says with a laugh: "because he can, son."

Weiner and a lot of other self-obsessed, arrogant, and, at the end of the day, stupid, politicians really seem to be just dogs at heart, don't they?

longprime · Guru

I haven't seen the original pixs and now you tease me with gym pics.

evileye

inthenews · Veteran Member

Politics is clearly a self selected field for pathological narcissism. Confidence and bold leadership are rewarded by our votes, but there can be a fine line between those qualities and arrogance. There is natural selection for attention seeking, risk taking, bold, decisive individuals with a charming veneer, obsession with appearances, and an ability to strategize to the point of manipulation. We know many people in local politics. Some are certainly in it for all the right reasons, but there are too many who are just mouthpieces with oversized egos and an inflated sense of themselves to match. Those new photos of Weiner in the Congrssional gym reveal a pretty sick guy whose development was stunted somewhere along the way.

This country ought to look at who we are putting in office and the process needed to get there in the first place.

soccerguy315 · Guru

I don't understand what he is seeking "professional help" for....? being an idiot? Do they have pills that fix that?

longprime · Guru

I know you can't.

Catahoula's gotta do, what he gotta do.

You can never make friends with a dog, until it gets to sniff you. I try to be friendly and accomodating evileye evileye

-- Edited by longprime on Sunday 12th of June 2011 06:52:10 PM

catahoula · Guru

Realizing, as I now do, that the gentleman is seeking professional help to address his lack of character, I feel a little insensitive passing this along but...

The Weiner doll comes as a standard doll for $US39.95 ($37.85) and an adults-only "anatomically correct" version for $US49.95 ($47.35).

Both figures are dressed in a T-shirt and gym shorts — with the words "tweet this" printed on the shorts.

For an extra $US18.00 ($17) customers can add a toy BlackBerry for the doll to hold.

... I can't help myself.

longprime · Guru

I've swung many atime. An axe I mean. yawn

It is worthwhile to wear a shirt to soak the sweat off the skin rather than the sweat catch the dirt and woodchips that abraid the skin-skin contact areas. I wear long pants for that reason evileye

-- Edited by longprime on Saturday 11th of June 2011 10:41:32 PM

ItalianMomma · Veteran Member

He's always been so rude, mean, and arrogant when interviewed. There's no way he can get away with that in the future out of fear that the interviewer will re-visit any of this.

He's been cut down to size.....and he was a shrimp to begin with.

Razorsharp · Guru

I'm not sure longprime. Maybe shirtless improves your follow through when you swing a big ax. blankstare

-- Edited by Razorsharp on Saturday 11th of June 2011 11:41:28 AM

BigG · Guru

Rep. Weiner's constituents do not want him to resign (by a comfortable margin).

The Democratic and Republican Parties want him to resign.

Does he work for his district or does he work for political parties?

How does something like a political party, which is not even Constitutional, get so dam much power and influence?

-- Edited by BigG on Saturday 11th of June 2011 11:34:36 AM

longprime · Guru

Razor, What does the lack of a shirt have to do with an axe?

I understand that the East is Very Hot. I'd be shirtless, and pantless (but in my BVD's) when looking to make firewood. evileye

Razorsharp · Guru

A shirtless man with an ax was outside the 17 year old girl's home? Now that's weirder than sending texts of your package.

CelticClan07 · Senior Member

And the beat goes on: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110610/NEWS/110610043/UPDATE-Weiner-admits-contact-17-year-old-Delaware-girl?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|Home

longprime · Guru

"they just were not meant to be released for security reasons"

Why were zippers invented?

For quick removals? evileye

soccerguy315 · Guru

hahaha longprime.

wikileaks is not really the same, IMO. Those documents do not portray the U.S. badly, they just were not supposed to be released for security reasons.

longprime · Guru

I really have the urge to post of CC's Wiener thread. " I hearby declare that this thread is Political. Mods are finks."

evileye

longprime · Guru

With the Internet and Wikileaks, quality people may find it hard to justify the magnifing images of public office.

Personally I would rather see someone's flaws rather than being perfect. Good examples are a physically attractive man with a well-known woman and the reverse genders. For good reasons, other women may target the taken.

Cartera · Guru

I'm glad I am involved in politics at the local level - not as an elected or candidate. I know some really wonderful people in politics. They are just regular folk who really see themselves as public servants. Unfortunately, those are the ones who have no desire to move up to the national level.

geeps20 · Senior Member

no surprise....as people who are drawn to politics are flawed individuals, much more so than the average person.

berurah · Senior Member

What a terrible blow to suffer while pregnant with your first child.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/huma-abedin-pregnant-anthony-weiners-wife_n_873430.html

pima · Guru

If he did this as a CEO of any company his butt would be out on the streets. We allow our politicians to get away with this crap, people who control our country are always given the it is their personal life. However, we go ballistic over sports players (Favre, Tiger) or CEO's (Trump, Welch both took heat for romantic affairs, who they later married). Seriously, am I the only one that sees an inequity in this?

-- Edited by pima on Wednesday 8th of June 2011 06:03:00 AM

BigG · Guru

Yep. The man violated the moral strictures of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (I am sure he has Christian constitutes).

Will the "Jimmy Swaggert" defense work for a Jewish politician?

Time will tell.

Razorsharp · Guru

This is a media scandal. That means everything is relevant. Whether he used his left hand or right hand to post those naughty pictures of his manliness is relevant. Whether he will be criticized by jewish leaders for his supposedly ungodly behavior. Whether his wife's family will now blackball him saying they knew a jew could never be faithful. Whether Hillary Clinton is advising the wife to bolt or how to handle the situation. Whether childhood classmates of the Representative always questioned his morality. And etc. and etc. and etc.

This a media scandle just like Arnold's scandal except no love child (at least not yet). It's all about rumor and speculation about a liar of a congressman.

The truth is that he did his job as elected and people should get over it. As far as we know, he didn't lie under oath like clinton, he just lied to you and me. He didn't use campaign funds for a mistriss like Edwards. He didn't plead guilty to a crime like Sen. Craig. It's a big so what. If he was just some screwball down the street, no one would care.

CelticClan07 · Senior Member

Well, anyone believe his fake tears today? He looked like the arrogant, lying jerk that he's always been. He lies, he blames Breibart for days, refuses to step down, and he still avoids questions! Way to go Weiner!!! Lack of judgement? Um yeah..... What people are still not getting is that he LIED, over and over to the public. Pics of your crotch to others is twisted enough, but he kept snowballing the story. That is a character flaw of a huge magnitude. And how did he know to whom the pics/messages were really going to? Kids? Terrorists? Anybody can make up anything on the internet, we all know that. Did you all see the string of IM's from his Facebook account Radaronline posted? Deeeesgusting!

Very glad Salon, Kos and other lib blogs look more idiotic and empty than they usually do. There were many who kept hurling accusations about the right-wing smear campaign against Weiner in order to bring him down. Even some here. So much for that theory.

Poetsheart · Senior Member

When is the media going to get some comments from his lovely muslim wife who works for Hillary Clinton?

I'm sure the media is camped outside of whatever place they presume her to be even as we speak, waiting for an opportunity to pounce, but how is her religion in any way relevant to this scandal? Certainly, Weiner's own religion has nothing to do with it. It doesn't appear that either of them is very religious, seeing as their wedding was apparently entirely secular. Bill Clinton performed their wedding, BTW, though I doubt he's in anyway responsible for this particular sex scandal, either. hmm Likewise, the fact that Weiner's wife works for Hillary Clinton, would appear to have little bearing.

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Monday 6th of June 2011 09:30:01 PM

Razorsharp · Guru

Poetsheart wrote:
I hate it when razor is right---LOL!

I am on a roll -- being right once in ten years is not bad for me.

When is the media going to get some comments from his lovely muslim wife who works for Hillary Clinton?

longprime · Guru

He's Grimmy. evileye

Politicians are sooo much funnny.

berurah · Senior Member

Poetsheart wrote:
What a complete and total idiot! What is it with these politicians? I simply do not understand how they can watch colleagues from both sides of the isle self implode from sex scandals over and over, and yet, think the consequences of such behavior won't apply to them when they do it.
This is a trait of pathological narcissism ("the rules don't apply to me"), and roughly 90 percent of politicians (and actors) are narcissists.
Re: the situation with Rep. Weiner: Occam's Razor proves useful yet again.

Poetsheart · Senior Member

Unless there's more news on this front, he can hardly be said to have "molested" any of the women he's texted. But, yes, it's totally disgusting. What surprised me was the news that he's essentially a "newlywed," having been married for less than a year. I feel sorry for his wife. Such public humiliation disbelief . I hope she won't be making any appearances by his side in any press conferences. I know there's no way in hell that I'd do so in her circumstances.

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

Woody,

I haven't had a chance to hear the press conference, yet. Should I just skip it and leave it to my imagination?

Pretty awful stuff, eh?

geeps20 · Senior Member

sure he was hacked...can't believe people actually believed him. Guy is a scumbag

Woodwork · Senior Member

To call him stupid is to be generous. He's a pig. I have a daughter older than the girls he was trying to molest. He's a Pig...no excuses.

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

Smart people do dumb things all the time. Unfortunately.

Politicians, in particular, do not seem to grasp that it's going to bit them harder than the average person. A celeb does something like this...it's just press. A legislator does it, and it's a scandal.

Poetsheart · Senior Member

What a complete and total idiot! What is it with these politicians? I simply do not understand how they can watch colleagues from both sides of the isle self implode from sex scandals over and over, and yet, think the consequences of such behavior won't apply to them when they do it. I was watching Weiner in his press conference this afternoon, and just kept thinking, "You big dummy! You big dummy!"

I hate it when razor is right---LOL!

Cartera · Guru

If Clarence Thomas had had access to a Twitter account, maybe we wouldn't be stuck with him - for life. He may not have limited his perversion to people in the room with him.

catahoula · Guru

In the interests of bipartisanship, "Wide-stance" Craig and Weiner ought to consider doing a photo-op, a "no labels" kind of thing.

A mens room would be the perfect place to shoot it.

busdriver11 · Guru

I wonder if the fans he still has left are will continue to say, "Clarence Thomas?"

I should have believed my first instinct on this one, it almost always comes down to the fact that politicians are all scum. No matter how smart or honorable they appear. They are self serving scum.

Cartera · Guru

He has lived up to his name. I'll always be a fan of his, politically. Can't wait to see what Jon Stewart has to say.

zoosermom · Senior Member

Well he just straight out said it was him and he did it. Weiner always weasels himself into coming to opening day at my son's little league. A total pain in the butt every year, makes it all about him. Heaven help him if he shows up there again because he will get an earful from me. Pervert.

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

Anyone still think he was hacked? That it was a prank?

Cartera · Guru

He will give press conference any minute.

zoosermom · Senior Member

Apparently ABC News now has a truly graphic image. They are "deciding" whether to go present further information and an interview on the topic. If this were a republican, does anyone seriously think there would even be a question?

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

Even the Los Angeles Times which leans so far left it actually tips over said that Weiner handled the press conference poorly and that this made him look less sympathetic to the public.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/02/news/la-pn-weiner-crisis-20110602

In this day and age it's rare to get good people who want to go into politics knowing that their life is on public display and every mistake is exaggerated. The simplest course is usually the best.

I have no idea if he was hacked or by whom, if he tweeted or not. We know it wasn't Breitbart, even though early stories implicated him with absolutely no proof.

My issue is that the press conference - IMO - put Weiner in a bad light. He could have handled it differently. He didn't. Now he is dealing with the fallout, even if he was the victim of a malicious crime.

Nobody ever knows how they are going to deal with a crisis until they are tested. For him, my opinion is that he acted like a "jackass" (something he said to one of the journalists interviewing him).

Totally his choice, BTW.

-- Edited by SamuraiLandshark on Saturday 4th of June 2011 07:56:49 PM

Razorsharp · Guru

You think you are mocking me, but actually, I have specialized skills and many years of experience observing demeanor and determining truthfulness. No, there is no such thing as a human lie detector. And in the interview I watched of Weiner his demeanor was so obvious that - well - even you could figure out he was untruthful.

Cartera · Guru

Wow, a human lie detector. Have you marketed your skills to the state and local governments? We could save a lot of money on trials and the like if you are capable of just watching a recorded interview and deciding.

-- Edited by Cartera on Saturday 4th of June 2011 01:47:44 PM

-- Edited by Cartera on Saturday 4th of June 2011 01:48:08 PM

Razorsharp · Guru

I watched one of Weiner's interviews. His demeanor clearly reflected deception. He wasn't telling the truth during the interview. I am not sure what happened, but he is clearly a liar.

Poetsheart · Senior Member

A Letter from Congressman Anthony Weiner

In February, 2011, armed with all these concerns, and anticipating the release of Thomas’ 2010 financial disclosure forms that would reveal Ginni Thomas’ Liberty Central income for the first time, a Congressman drafted a letter that was co-signed by 74 members of Congress, taking the issue of recusal and conflicts of interest directly to Clarence Thomas’ door.

Dear Justice Thomas:
As an Associate Justice, you are entrusted with the responsibility to exercise the highest degree of discretion and impartiality when deciding a case. As Members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act.
The appearance of a conflict of interest merits recusal under federal law. From what we have already seen, the line between your impartiality and you and your wife’s financial stake in the overturn of healthcare reform is blurred. Your spouse is advertising herself as a lobbyist who has “experience and connections” and appeals to clients who want a particular decision – they want to overturn health care reform. Moreover, your failure to disclose Ginny Thomas’s receipt of $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, a prominent opponent of healthcare reform, between 2003 and 2007 has raised great concern.
This is not the first case where your impartiality was in question. As Common Cause points out, you “participated in secretive political strategy sessions, perhaps while the case was pending, with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the [5-4] decision” on the Citizens United case. Your spouse also received an undisclosed salary paid for by undisclosed donors as CEO of Liberty Central, a 501(c)(4) organization that stood to benefit from the decision and played an active role in the 2010 elections.
Given these facts, there is a strong conflict between the Thomas household’s financial gain through your spouse’s activities and your role as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. We urge you to recuse yourself from this case. If the US Supreme Court’s decision is to be viewed as legitimate by the American people, this is the only correct path.
We appreciate your thoughtful consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
ANTHONY D. WEINER

Weiner followed this letter up with the Conflicted Clarence Thomas campaign, highlighting Thomas’ conflicts due to Ginni’s work and income, collecting signatures from citizens who shared his outrage, and making life very uncomfortable for Thomas and his die-hard supporters.

The Friday-Before-Holiday-Weekend Document Drop

At last, on Friday, May 27, just before the Memorial Day weekend, Clarence Thomas released his 2010 financial disclosure forms, and Anthony Weiner was standing by, ready to pore over them and broadcast what they revealed across all media, including… Twitter.

You know what happened next. And if you’ve been living in a cave for the last week, you can read all about it here.

But notice now what you may not have noticed before. How allegations that Anthony Weiner sexually harassed a young African American woman just appeared out of the blue at the very moment when Weiner’s campaign to discredit Clarence Thomas was peaking. Think some more about what you’ve learned that you may not know, or have forgotten, about the history of the players in this drama and their nexus with the story of the man whose name came to be synonymous with sexual harassment in the American culture 20 years ago. Think about how distracted the media have been from the story of Clarence Thomas, in spite of the efforts of Anthony Weiner to keep a spotlight on Thomas. Think of how CNN and all the other networks want to talk about allegations of sexual impropriety against Anthony Weiner, when 20 years ago their attention was focused on Thomas.

However this story ultimately resolves, and whatever we ultimately learn about the photo in question and how it ended up where it did, and why a mysterious stranger on Twitter has been stalking people for some time whose only connection is Twitter friendship with Congressman Weiner, it seems this strange conservative True Believer has been searching for dirt on Weiner and/or the most media-genic candidate to pose as a victim of Weiner’s harassment, and timed it expertly to explode on the same day Thomas’ financial disclosure forms were released.

And that is why when you say Weinergate, I say Clarence Thomas.

Very Interesting.....Something smells to high heaven....Ginny Thomas' integral involvement in the advancement of the agendas of The Heritage Foundation and The Tea Party, and their not inconsiderably advantageous effects on her marrital income...Certain cases of interest (as indentified by those organizations) pending the Sureme Court and questions concerning the ability to remain impartial on the part of her Associate Justice husband..? confuse

But somehow, the thing that should be of greatest interest is a possible photo of Anthony Weiner's underwear clad weiner? Really.....?

I don't think so.

Interesting too, about the long assumed political party affilliation of Anita Hill....

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Saturday 4th of June 2011 12:47:40 AM

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Saturday 4th of June 2011 12:49:14 AM

-- Edited by Poetsheart on Saturday 4th of June 2011 01:36:57 AM