Sex, Lies and Politicians, Take 2

Image via WikipediaAnthony Weiner is a Democratic congressman who has been serving the citizens of his district in New York for seven terms, and has been mentioned as a possible candidate in 2013 for mayor of New York City.  Lately, though, he's become just another politician caught with his pants down.

Weiner has admitted to taking pictures of himself either shirtless or with a bulge in his underwear, then sending them to various women via Twitter.  He says he is not resigning, despite pleas from his party to do so.

To top it all off, Weiner's wife is pregnant with their first child.

This is why politicians are looked down upon by the general population.  Esteem for these public servants goes down every time they do something idiotic.  We say we want people with good moral character to run for public office.  But it's so expensive to run a campaign these days, so we get these guys instead.

Power corrupts and acts like an aphrodisiac.  Once you get elected, all sorts of temptations come your way.  It could be an individual or group waving money at you in exchange for favorable legislation.  It could be party pressure to vote their way on a certain issue instead of striking out on your own.  It could also be that hot-looking intern you've been dying to share a bed with, even though you already have a wife and a couple of kids who don't live in Washington with you.  Your challenge is to resist those temptations.  Not many succeed.

So far we've only mentioned male politicians who have been caught up in a career-threatening sex scandal.  Someday, we might be hearing about a female politician who's been sending pictures of her private parts through various social media, or has been having an affair with her best friend's husband.  This might indeed be happening, but women seem to be doing a better job of not getting caught.

However long Anthony Weiner is able to stay in Congress, he has become compromised.  Just like President Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and all the others from both sides of the aisle who yielded to temptation just because they felt they were invincible.  It may be a human trait, but it detracts from the job you were elected to do.  The voters, if they get the chance in 2012, might remind Weiner of this at the ballot box.

UPDATE:  Representative Weiner has announced that he's taking a leave of absence from his congressional duties to seek professional help.

Also, we caught an episode of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" over the weekend (the satellite company was offering a free preview).  In one segment, Maher and guest Jane Lynch of TV's "Glee" were reading from the sexually explicit correspondence Weiner allegedly sent.  We listened to a couple of minutes of it before deciding that (A) the mainstream media were correct in declining to report this, and (B) it was a couple of minutes too many.  Oh, and one more thing:  we saw this program on Saturday morning.  Just so you know, there's a time and place for that kind of humor, but not on a Saturday morning.