What should Rep. Weiner have done? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

ASU2003 · 06-07-2011, 07:09 PM

Besides not sending pictures using Twitter? And I don't really get what was bad about those pictures or the photos Rep. Lee sent on Craigslist, unless they were actively trying to hit on girls... Now, I do think it was bad that it appears that he lied about the 'hackers', but what should he have done?

Were they trying to find girls to sleep with? Were they having some 'fun'?

Is it because we think Congressmen should be prudish monogamous people? Is it because America equates any nudity or underwear pictures with sex, and that is a sin? (Go to a European beach, magazines, or look through the Sunday Ads and you will find similar pictures)

1. So, should he have said that "this is a private matter"?
2. Should he have said "Yeah, I sent them, so what"?
3. It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people.
4. No comment
5. Maybe the Clinton defense, "What am I supposed to say, Yes, and my wife leaves me, No, and I get convicted for perjury/impeached"?
6. Play out the hacker 'lie'.
7. Say it is a right-wing conspiracy to discredit him.
8. That there are powerful people who are blackmailing him to vote in a certain way, and when he didn't, they sent the photos. And unless he says that he sent them, they will do some other bad stuff to his family.

It is another distraction story, I know, but it seems like it was handled so poorly.

Charlatan · 06-07-2011, 08:42 PM

He should have come up with something along these lines:

"Yeah, I sent them, so what? It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people."

Mantus · 06-07-2011, 09:38 PM

Is this anything more than the media needing their monthly political sacrifice?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

He should have come up with something along these lines:

"Yeah, I sent them, so what? It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people."

+1

Willravel · 06-07-2011, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

He should have come up with something along these lines:

"Yeah, I sent them, so what? It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people."

/thread

samcol · 06-08-2011, 04:33 AM

I think this is a reflection on politicians in general. These people are pathological liars and only admit the truths when they are caught red handed, and even then it's only part of the truth.

Schwarzenegger, Wiener, Edwards, Clinton the list goes around the block.

These people run our country and are expert liars. Why would they not lie about the policies the set? They treat the the people closest to them horribly, and we wonder why our country is going down the tubes?

I would want him to step down if he was my rep. He's totally untrustworthy.

I also like how he tried to blame Breitbart. Weiner is a real piece of shit to be honest.

SecretMethod70 · 06-08-2011, 05:34 AM

Ideally, admitted the truth, asked for forgiveness, and moved on. Realistically, come up with less absurd lies on the difficult path toward publicly admitting the truth.

This op-ed pretty much summarizes exactly how I feel (and why I feel this whole story is no big deal).

Hendrik Hertzberg: Anthony Weiner Comes Clean : The New Yorker

Quote:

ANTHONY WEINER COMES CLEAN
Posted by Hendrik Hertzberg
Sex scandals are an increasingly prominent, increasingly frequent, and increasingly varied part of American political life. They come in all flavors and orientations. If what the protagonist of the latest one said during his remarkable press conference this afternoon is true, if it’s essentially the whole story, then Weinergate breaks new ground: it’s the first entirely virtual political sex scandal, the first to have been conducted entirely via e-mail, and online social media. (Plus a bit of phone sex, perhaps. But that’s electronic, too.)

In other ways, though, it’s not so new. It confirms a pet theory of mine: the Clinton Rule, which states that when a married politician appears before cameras and microphones and starts babbling absurd lies about some sexual something, the person he is really trying to lie to is his spouse. The lies that get told to the public and the press are side effects. So far this rule has applied only to heterosexual politicians, but gay marriage is still in its infancy. We shall see.

The era of the modern sex scandal began in 1988 with Gary Hart, Donna Rice, the S.S. Monkey Business, and the Miami Herald. It seems almost quaint now, but back then it was de rigueur for the press to maintain that the sex scandal of the moment was not really “about” sex. What it was “about” was lying, which in turn meant that it was “about” something more important than sex, i.e., “character.”

The problem is that lying is an inherent part of adultery and, by extension, of any illicit or potentially embarrassing sexual activity or proclivity. By itself, the fact that a person has lied about sex tells you nothing about that person’s general propensity to lie. Unlike most citizens, prominent politicians like Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, and Anthony Weiner make speeches by the hundred, give media interviews constantly, and have extensively documented public records. If the politician is a habitual or characterological liar, the public record will show it and the lying-about-sex is redundant. If the politician is not a habitual or characterological liar, his lying-about-sex is misleading—is itself a lie, in a way.

On MSNBC, the cable-news “home page” of my political tribe, one commentator said that one of the things Weinergate shows is that powerful politicians assume they can get away with things that regular people can’t. If they do assume that, they’re wrong. It would be more accurate to say that they can’t get away with things that regular people can. Look around you. Consider your friends, your work colleagues, your relatives, maybe even yourself. It’s likely that a nontrivial proportion of them have some sexual secret (at least they think it’s a secret) in their lives. If their secret comes out, if they get caught in an embarrassing lie about it, the whole world isn’t going to hear about it. It won’t be national news.

After Weiner’s press conference, there was near-unanimous agreement among the cable talkers that his political career is finished. One of them predicted that Weiner will not be a Member of Congress two weeks from now. I doubt that. I found his conduct at the press conference quite impressive, given the circumstances. He seemed genuinely ashamed, genuinely sorry. But he also showed some steel, some determination, some discipline, some dignity. I think he'll be around for quite a while. The modern media embarrassment machine is bigger than it ever was, but so is the fatal dose. Weiner may yet be Mayor of New York one day. Just not next time.

---------- Post added at 08:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by samcol

I think this is a reflection on politicians in general. These people are pathological liars and only admit the truths when they are caught red handed, and even then it's only part of the truth.

Schwarzenegger, Wiener, Edwards, Clinton the list goes around the block.

These people run our country and are expert liars. Why would they not lie about the policies the set? They treat the the people closest to them horribly, and we wonder why our country is going down the tubes?

I would want him to step down if he was my rep. He's totally untrustworthy.

I also like how he tried to blame Breitbart. Weiner is a real piece of shit to be honest.

As the op-ed above points out, lying about infidelity (something which, by the way, an estimated 60%+ of all men do) does not reflect on one's general tendency to lie. Even if we accept that it does, Weiner's "scandal" is about the lamest political sex scandal ever (With Rep. Lee a close second). Now we're crucifying politicians who flirt with other ladies too? If 60% of all men have actual physical affairs, I'd love to see the numbers for men who cross the line while flirting but don't have a physical affair.

roachboy · 06-08-2011, 06:46 AM

i agree with charlatan and smeth.

what bothers me in this is the role of that sleazebag breitbart. i would love to see him get hoisted by his own petard.

Baraka_Guru · 06-08-2011, 07:11 AM

At least they aren't going to sew a scarlet letter A to his lapel.

Are they?

Mathilda · 06-08-2011, 07:22 AM

Just an "Oops, sorry about that." would have been sufficient.
Really not worth lying about something that lame and only drawing attention to it.

Either that or change your name to something else from Weiner before you enter politics.

Jinn · 06-08-2011, 07:41 AM

"Yes, it was me. It's between my wife and I. It has no impact on my dedication to my constituency. Any other fuckin' questions?"

I learned at age 12 (looking up "Vagina" in Encarta 95 and then lying about it) that the only worthwhile path is complete acknowledgement of what you did and then accepting the consequences. Lying just wastes time.. it'll come out eventually. Also, I learned in that lesson about the value of "History" functions in browsers and software, and watch it carefully.

kutulu · 06-08-2011, 09:40 AM

The attempted coverup was worse than what started it. He should have known that the truth would come out and been honest from the start. At least he didn't break any laws.

WhoaitsZ · 06-09-2011, 08:22 PM

I wish I could slap him. He is a hero of mine... That said I'm tired of private lives coming out in the open if it isn't something that goes against his ideology.

Tully Mars · 06-10-2011, 04:31 AM

He should buy a t-shirt that reads "My name is not David Vitter."

Derwood · 06-10-2011, 07:50 AM

"I did nothing illegal."

pan6467 · 06-10-2011, 12:16 PM

It all depends on if the photos were pushed on the women or if the women beforehand asked for them. One is mutual consent, the other any man here or elsewhere would be busted for sexual harassment.

Plus, did this man use tax funded congressional computers and phone lines for this? If so, especially in these uncertain times financially for the government where every dollar should be accounted for, then I believe he committed crimes against the state and should be held accountable with at the very least stripped of all Congressional perks, while paying the taxpayers back out of his own pocket.

Hell, Massillon Ohio lost cops over something similar when the chief and a female officer went to Cincy to extradite a criminal and in front of the car cam and the criminal, while driving made out.

http://youtu.be/4PJhulgVbhc

A friend of mine always says his father and grandfather always said,"We don't care what you do, just don't get caught." His grandfather was of Italian/Sicilian descent and very well known in the country, esp. NYC. Truer words and advice never have been spoken.

---------- Post added at 04:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 PM ----------

This is just the weekly "let's get something to lead the people away from focussing on the war and deficit/budget" BS. There was Trump, then the whole Isreal/Obama "debate"....... Libya, Egypt, and so on.

If it's not obvious the government and press are trying like Hell to throw in diversions from what truly matters... Then we deserve who we get in office and what happens in the war. The poor men and women over there don't deserve the BS. But if 'Nam taught our government anything, it was to not bring the war into the living rooms on a nightly basis.

loquitur · 06-10-2011, 01:03 PM

In a couple of months no one but political junkies will even remember this. I bet most of his constituents didn't even know his name before this story broke.

Tully Mars · 06-10-2011, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loquitur

I bet most of his constituents didn't even know his name before this story broke.

Yep, people bitch and moan yet have no idea who represents them and many never vote.

I read today one girl might be underage, if that turns out to be true... completely different game in my book.

pan6467 · 06-10-2011, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tully Mars

Yep, people bitch and moan yet have no idea who represents them and many never vote.

I read today one girl might be underage, if that turns out to be true... completely different game in my book.

I hope it is hype, but if he did send texts to a teen knowing she was underage, then nail his ass.

Rekna · 06-11-2011, 11:33 AM

He should come out and say "I'll resign when Vitter resigns"

ASU2003 · 06-11-2011, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan6467

I hope it is hype, but if he did send texts to a teen knowing she was underage, then nail his ass.

Rule 29. On the internet, all girls are men, and all underage girls are undercover FBI agents.

At least the girl was learning about government...

MSD · 06-18-2011, 06:58 PM

First of all, I have to say I'm glad he resigned. The left may have lost our strongest orator and most outspoken mouthpiece for progressive causes, but I no longer have to maintain the cognitive dissonance between Weiner's admirable work to advance progressive causes in legislature and his unforgivable unconditional support of the Israeli apartheid state and the war crimes perpetrated by its leaders.

He should have asked people who understand how the Internet works to explain it to him in a way that his feeble, over-30 brain can understand. He should have said "that's none of your business" and left it at that when attacked. When asked directly he should have said the same.

He did nothing worse, and in fact something far less severe, than what half of all married adults do. It was a personal matter and the only person he owes an apology to is his wife, and I hope he has been nothing less than honest with her. Everyone else, the pundits, the journalists, etc. are irrelevant and Senator Weiner had every right to lie to them because is was none of their goddamn business and they had no right to be asking the questions they asked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rekna

He should come out and say "I'll resign when Vitter resigns"

Basically this, but with a lot more profanity.

aceventura3 · 06-21-2011, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASU2003

2. Should he have said "Yeah, I sent them, so what"?

My next new hero will be the politician who when asked about sex says:

YouTube - ‪The Chipmunks - I Like Big Butts...‬&rlm;

Most men are sexually attracted to women. We want to look at them. We want to smell them. We want to be close to them. We want to touch them. We want to them to want us. We want to have sex with them. And some even want to be spanked by them. So what! Weiner did nothing illegal, his problem is that he lied. Real men are not ashamed of their sexual desires for women.

And real men are honest about it with their partners. If you can't be honest with your partner, you have the wrong partner.

MSD · 06-22-2011, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aceventura3

And real men are honest about it with their partners. If you can't be honest with your partner, you have the wrong partner.

I disagree. If you can't be honest with your partner, you are the wrong partner.

aceventura3 · 06-28-2011, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSD

I disagree. If you can't be honest with your partner, you are the wrong partner.

Good point.

06-07-2011, 07:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	What should Rep. Weiner have done? Besides not sending pictures using Twitter? And I don't really get what was bad about those pictures or the photos Rep. Lee sent on Craigslist, unless they were actively trying to hit on girls... Now, I do think it was bad that it appears that he lied about the 'hackers', but what should he have done? Were they trying to find girls to sleep with? Were they having some 'fun'? Is it because we think Congressmen should be prudish monogamous people? Is it because America equates any nudity or underwear pictures with sex, and that is a sin? (Go to a European beach, magazines, or look through the Sunday Ads and you will find similar pictures) 1. So, should he have said that "this is a private matter"? 2. Should he have said "Yeah, I sent them, so what"? 3. It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people. 4. No comment 5. Maybe the Clinton defense, "What am I supposed to say, Yes, and my wife leaves me, No, and I get convicted for perjury/impeached"? 6. Play out the hacker 'lie'. 7. Say it is a right-wing conspiracy to discredit him. 8. That there are powerful people who are blackmailing him to vote in a certain way, and when he didn't, they sent the photos. And unless he says that he sent them, they will do some other bad stuff to his family. It is another distraction story, I know, but it seems like it was handled so poorly.

06-07-2011, 08:42 PM	#2 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	He should have come up with something along these lines: "Yeah, I sent them, so what? It's the Internet, who hasn't sent those types of photos to someone? Get with the times people." __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

06-08-2011, 04:33 AM	#5 (permalink)
samcol Junkie Location: Indiana	I think this is a reflection on politicians in general. These people are pathological liars and only admit the truths when they are caught red handed, and even then it's only part of the truth. Schwarzenegger, Wiener, Edwards, Clinton the list goes around the block. These people run our country and are expert liars. Why would they not lie about the policies the set? They treat the the people closest to them horribly, and we wonder why our country is going down the tubes? I would want him to step down if he was my rep. He's totally untrustworthy. I also like how he tried to blame Breitbart. Weiner is a real piece of shit to be honest. __________________ It's time for the president to hand over his nobel peace prize. Last edited by samcol; 06-08-2011 at 04:36 AM..

06-08-2011, 06:46 AM	#7 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i agree with charlatan and smeth. what bothers me in this is the role of that sleazebag breitbart. i would love to see him get hoisted by his own petard. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite

06-08-2011, 07:11 AM	#8 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	At least they aren't going to sew a scarlet letter A to his lapel. Are they? __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

06-08-2011, 07:22 AM	#9 (permalink)
Mathilda Upright Location: Finland	Just an "Oops, sorry about that." would have been sufficient. Really not worth lying about something that lame and only drawing attention to it. Either that or change your name to something else from Weiner before you enter politics.

06-08-2011, 07:41 AM	#10 (permalink)
Jinn Lover - Protector - Teacher Location: Seattle, WA	"Yes, it was me. It's between my wife and I. It has no impact on my dedication to my constituency. Any other fuckin' questions?" I learned at age 12 (looking up "Vagina" in Encarta 95 and then lying about it) that the only worthwhile path is complete acknowledgement of what you did and then accepting the consequences. Lying just wastes time.. it'll come out eventually. Also, I learned in that lesson about the value of "History" functions in browsers and software, and watch it carefully. __________________ "I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

06-08-2011, 09:40 AM	#11 (permalink)
kutulu Junkie	The attempted coverup was worse than what started it. He should have known that the truth would come out and been honest from the start. At least he didn't break any laws.

06-09-2011, 08:22 PM	#12 (permalink)
WhoaitsZ Crazy Location: right behind you...	I wish I could slap him. He is a hero of mine... That said I'm tired of private lives coming out in the open if it isn't something that goes against his ideology.

06-10-2011, 04:31 AM	#13 (permalink)
Tully Mars Living in a Warmer Insanity Super Moderator Location: Yucatan, Mexico	He should buy a t-shirt that reads "My name is not David Vitter." __________________ I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

06-10-2011, 07:50 AM	#14 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	"I did nothing illegal." __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

06-10-2011, 12:16 PM	#15 (permalink)
pan6467 Lennonite Priest Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA	It all depends on if the photos were pushed on the women or if the women beforehand asked for them. One is mutual consent, the other any man here or elsewhere would be busted for sexual harassment. Plus, did this man use tax funded congressional computers and phone lines for this? If so, especially in these uncertain times financially for the government where every dollar should be accounted for, then I believe he committed crimes against the state and should be held accountable with at the very least stripped of all Congressional perks, while paying the taxpayers back out of his own pocket. Hell, Massillon Ohio lost cops over something similar when the chief and a female officer went to Cincy to extradite a criminal and in front of the car cam and the criminal, while driving made out. http://youtu.be/4PJhulgVbhc A friend of mine always says his father and grandfather always said,"We don't care what you do, just don't get caught." His grandfather was of Italian/Sicilian descent and very well known in the country, esp. NYC. Truer words and advice never have been spoken. ---------- Post added at 04:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 PM ---------- This is just the weekly "let's get something to lead the people away from focussing on the war and deficit/budget" BS. There was Trump, then the whole Isreal/Obama "debate"....... Libya, Egypt, and so on. If it's not obvious the government and press are trying like Hell to throw in diversions from what truly matters... Then we deserve who we get in office and what happens in the war. The poor men and women over there don't deserve the BS. But if 'Nam taught our government anything, it was to not bring the war into the living rooms on a nightly basis. __________________ I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" Last edited by pan6467; 06-10-2011 at 12:10 PM..

06-10-2011, 01:03 PM	#16 (permalink)
loquitur Junkie Location: NYC	In a couple of months no one but political junkies will even remember this. I bet most of his constituents didn't even know his name before this story broke.

06-11-2011, 11:33 AM	#19 (permalink)
Rekna Junkie	He should come out and say "I'll resign when Vitter resigns"