So Over Weinergate

All the media seems to talk about these days is Congressman Anthony Weiner. He tweeted inappropriate photos. He had inappropriate conversations with women who were not his wife. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it ill-advised? Sure. Should he lose his seat in Congress over it? No way.

Rep. Weiner actually went so far as to enter a rehab facility to straighten out his behavior. What kind of rehab facility treats “inappropriateness”?

Many have said that he lied about the photo in question for ten days. That is why he should leave Congress. However, if every Congressperson who lies has to leave office, we would have a lot of empty office space on Capitol Hill and tons of special elections to deal with.

House Democratic leaders Wasserman Schultz, Israel, and Pelosi jointly called for him to resign yesterday.

“Congressman Weiner has the love of his family, the confidence of his constituents and the recognition that he needs help. I urge Congressman Weiner to seek that help without the pressures of being a member of Congress,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi

There is no need for Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign. His constituents want him to stay in office. That should be enough to keep him there. He didn’t do anything illegal. His actions were not appropriate. He didn’t handle the matters well. He is a good Democratic congressman. We need more like him.

On the other side of the aisle, the GOP has been loving the scandalization of this sexting scandal. Truthfully, if anyone should know about how to mishandle a good sex scandal, it’s the Republicans. No one asked Rep. Ensign to step down when he admitted he had an affair and used campaign money to pay off the family. Rep. David Vitter was caught hiring a DC madam and calling her from the House floor and he is STILL in office. No one ever asked him to resign. Rep. Tom Coburn, who was the facilitator between Ensign and his mistress for said pay-out, is only now facing scrutiny. Rep. Chris Leebard resigned on his own volition after soliciting sex on Craig’s List. All of these things are much worse than sending inappropriate photos.

How about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas? He is embroiled in ethics violations, from not disclosing his wife’s income on his financial statements, to not recusing himself over health care reform where his wife has been involved in the case (ironically Rep. Weiner was one of the Representatives who brought forth legislation against this kind of ethical violation) and not recusing himself from a case involving his former employers, Monsanto, where he worked as a lawyer. Yet there has been no rallying cry against this Supreme Court Justice from either side of the aisle.

However, when questioned about Rep. Vitter Sunday on Meet The Press by Democratic National Committee Chair Wasserman-Schultz, GOP National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus stated that what Vitter did happened five years ago. He then quickly changed the subject, saying we needed to focus on jobs and stimulating the economy.

Priebus saying we need to focus on jobs and stimulating the economy is ironic when his party wants to cut government spending to bare bones level, has put forth zero jobs bills and only seems concerned with keeping the rich richer.

The day after Weiner came clean with society and said it was in fact he who tweeted the picture, it was also announced that his wife Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is pregnant with the couple’s first child. She has vowed to remain by her husband’s side throughout this ordeal. In his address to the media regarding the scandal, Weiner stated “We will weather this, I love her very much, and she loves me.”

Probably the most salacious detail of the sexless sexting scandal, is the discovery that Weiner had sent 5 private twitter messages to a 17 year old girl. The girl was a high school student who became one of his Twitter followers following hearing him deliver a speech. Rep. Weiner has declared that the tweets sent to this girl were “neither explicit nor indecent”. There has been an official investigation and so far it has been determined that none of these tweets were inappropriate. The girl’s parents have confirmed this.

The point to the media and Democrats in office is this: This non-scandal would have blown over by now, if worried members of the party had not kept bringing it up. Democrats in America are pretty much over it and the elected Democrats really shouldn’t care about looking good for the Republicans who don’t care about looking good after sex scandals on their side of the aisle.

I’m over it. You are over it. It is time for Rep. Wasserman-Schultz and Rep. Pelosi to get over it too.

We have bigger issues to deal with, don’t we?