June 12, 2011
The Worms Turn. Yesterday, congressman Andrew Weiner’s own party began in earnest to push him out. As always, it seems, following the GOP’s lead – the party of David Vitter, John Ensign, Larry Craig, “Perfesser Gingo,” and many other family values paragons – the Democratic House leadership led the party to an embarrassing show of weakness and disloyalty. Moreover, it’s a self-inflicted shot in the foot since the congressman is one of the few democrats who has the voice and the courage to attack the GOP crapola machine. In fact, Weiner’s passion in that regard acts as the supercharger to the disloyalty of a Dem leadership so very into “civility,” despite the GOP’s mystification at the concept.
His “voluntary” leave of absence announced today – obviously engineered by Pelosi – marks a nearly certain end to the career of a man who took the fight to the enemy with magnificent moxie. And to be sentenced without reflection or rationality by his own political family is shameful. His was a summary execution for offenses of very small consequence, a triumph of “civility” in the face of the shameless and hypocritical party of Vitter/Ensign. Nowhere did Minority Leader Pelosi or DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz call out Louisiana Senator David “Ho’monger” Vitter, nor did Pelosi mention the ethics hearings she had been so charged up about last week.
This new chapter in Weinergate began at 2:00 pm yesterday, when the WaPo reported:
“The top leaders in the Democratic party called on embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) to resign Saturday, a potential tipping point in the two-week long scandal involving the New York Democrat’s online liaisons. ‘Congressman Weiner has the love of his family, the confidence of his constituents, and the recognition that he needs help,’ said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). ‘I urge Congressman Weiner to seek that help without the pressures of being a Member of Congress.’ Of Weiner, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) said ‘the behavior he has exhibited is indefensible and Representative Weiner’s continued service in Congress is untenable.’ Weiner spokeswoman Risa Heller said Saturday afternoon that the Congressman ‘departed this morning to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person.’ She added that he would request ‘a short leave of absence from the House’ after which he would make a decision on his political future.’”
Under The Bus, and Then Off The Bridge. O.K., one can agree that the congressman really stepped in it. One can be disgusted with him, disgruntled, or just mystified. I agree, but I’m not going to waste time with all that. So far, what I’ve read and heard leaves me shaking my head, not much more. In the realm of adult-to-adult behavior, Weiner’s offenses were mild, at best; I certainly can’t volunteer to throw the first – or any subsequent – stone. I felt the same about Republican Chris “Craigslist” Lee when he resigned last February. Neither man had violated so-called “black letter” law.
Weiner’s behavior does bring Congress under a moral microscope, and that too is understandable. In a philosophical sense, though, the House displays far worse moral behavior than Weiner’s – and it’s not remotely sexual. Witness Republican proposals to impoverish millions for the sake of Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan. Sex, though, is a trump card in scandals; one’s urge to look away is always shellacked by one’s curious glee. We’ve all giggled like fourth graders since the story reared its ugly head. When any behavior, sexual or otherwise, crosses into the area of illegality, like non-sexual misdoings of former House Speakers Gingrich and Wright, sanctions are called for, and resignation plausible. When alleged illegality is absent, though, as with Weiner, then only the moral question remains. And for many years, disagreements over morals have divided our country decisively. And sex scandals? Wow.
Given that national moral paralysis, and the obscene choice of letting Congress decide Weiner’s fate, let’s separate our moral opinions of Weiner’s poor judgment, and put this mess where it belongs, in the hands – and votes – of his constituents. Thus far, they’re in his corner. If they want to rid themselves of him, if they consider him a moral wasteland, they will do so in about 17 months in the 2012 election. Period. Paragraph.
Flaccid House Democratic Leadership Quivers. Speaking of morality, is there a level of moral flaccidity so stultifying that it requires a declaration of time of death? If so, the House Dems are trending that way. You can see the quotes above – Pelosi’s astoundingly insincere concern; Wasserman Schultz’s usual moral certainty and overreaction; and the silent others, most of whom couldn’t deign to throw the man a life preserver. Sadly, by and large, this is the Democratic party today. With some exceptions – like the unabashed partisan Weiner – it’s been that way for years.
If You Can Dodge a Wrench, You Can Dodge a Ball. Here, the Dems once again allowed the GOP to deploy one of their favored tactics: the cynical use our sense of morality against us. It always works like this:
1. Weiner did as wieners do, and got caught, then lied, and thereby injured his wife, family, supporters, constituents, etc. etc.,
2. GOP cynics quickly jump to roundly condemn him. With long faces, shocked demeanor, and self-righteous falderal they lecture him, the Dems, and us just plain folks on the consequences that ought to befall such moral failings, such sexual “creepiness,” to paraphrase the skeevy GOP Chairman, Reince Prieibus.
3. The hypocritical GOP song and dance goes on to boost the favored position of their own party’s family values, and thereby draw in and rally their base constituency (and I mean “base” in both its senses).
4. When it’s pointed out to them that they inexplicably express no concern whatever about the likes of the departed GOP Senator John Ensign, or the (still seated) GOP Senator David Vitter, the GOP en masse goes utterly deaf, and simply pushes aside these questions as irrelevant and improper.
5. As the aforementioned Reince Priebus told Greta Van Susteren last week, “I’m not here to re-litigate the David Vitter story.” Last night he said the Vitter matter “is a seven year old story.” Wow! A virtuoso. See? Thereafter and forever, as we’ll see, the GOP stays completely on message and cycles it again and again, mentioning God, the dignity of the House, ethics, morals, family values, and all their balderdash.
6. When Democrats – dumbly – think they’re falling behind, that a “morals gap” is opening, they – dumbly – do not fight back, but instead – dumbly – overreact and, in Congressman Weiner’s case, they go for what they believe will be the winning blow, and instead kick themselves in the groin by displaying rank cowardice, and ironically, moral weakness. Isn’t loyalty is a moral act?
Let’s face it, unless it’s revealed that Weiner violated any state or federal law, the likely illegal acts of Vitter and Ensign make Weiner’s bad behavior look like a schoolboy in short pants unleashing a spitball. You see, most of the GOP elite has no interest at all in a definitive set of moral values except as a tool to build a following among their now largely evangelical political base, especially now with the Iowa straw vote approaching. Faking it, however, causes the base to conclude their GOP celebrities are plain folk too, just like them.
Here’s what’s key, though. The Democratic party time and again reacts with a head down long sigh of shame. Do they fight back? Do they vigorously explain to the American people the Grand Canyon-sized distance between Weiner’s case and Vitter’s or Ensign’s? Simply put, do they fight for one of their own, regardless of how mixed their feelings are about his abrasive legislative personality? Of course not. Why? To Democrats these days, fighting back with the unvarnished truth about GOP hypocrisy would violate one of their leading principles: don’t look “angry,” or “aggressive,” or, most of all, don’t sink into “incivility.” And that’s how the GOP plays our own values and morals against us, values they do not themselves share, do not even credit.
Sometimes A Cigar Is Just a Cigar – Attributed to Sigmund Freud. This GOP indifference is particularly true of sexual morality – witness David Vitter canoodling with prostitutes as often as his constituents say “Obamacare” on an average day. Look there at Gingo Gingrich, burying his “ethics” in then staffer Callista Bisek (now Callista Gingrich) at the same time he was driving the country insane trying to impeach Bill Clinton. How about Speaker-elect Bob Livingston who was to succeed Gingo after he resigned? This “family values” guy was rabid for Clinton’s impeachment. Oh, and which Louisiana politico replaced Mr. Livingston? Another “family values” guy, David Vitter! This cynical use of moral beliefs held by their constituents pays off at the ballot box, and then, in office they work steadfastly against the needs of the very plain folk who bought their bill of goods and put them in office.
So, by pushing Congressman Weiner to resign, the Democratic party leadership, and the vast majority of the Dem caucus, have as usual fallen headlong and clueless into the GOP trap. They allowed the GOP, that pack of lying hypocrites, to determine Democratic tactics. To avoid at all costs the appearance of having backbones, Pelosi, Wasserman Schultz, and the weasel pack ran sniveling and panicked into the deep hole prepared by the GOP. This will, in its cowardice, as always, cause some more voters to turn away from the “Democrat” party in disgust. Civility in answer to provocation is not a moral victory, it’s a moral failing.
