Anthony Weiner: Been There, Done That

Anthony Weiner, NYC, May 2011 (Pre-"Weinergate") (Photo credit: Tony Fischer Photography)

Stop us if you've heard this before.  A Democratic congressman from New York had to resign a couple of years ago because he was caught tweeting pictures of his private parts on his phone to different women.  Now he wants to run for mayor of New York City, but he's still allegedly doing it, this time texting ten different women while referring to himself as "Carlos Danger".

OK, so you have heard this one.  The man we're referring to is Anthony Weiner, who has once again embarrassed his wife (who used to be an aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who knows a thing or two about such matters), family and constituents with his seeming inability to focus on serving the people instead of serving himself.

Poll numbers, such as the one taken by New York's WNBC-TV and the Wall Street Journal that has Weiner trailing his Democratic opponent by nine points, aren't quite enough to convince Weiner to drop out of the mayoral race.  And he shouldn't.  Voters have enough bad choices as it is.  Why should Weiner be any different?

Weiner is just one of a few individuals who have lately grabbed headlines for behaving badly in public, but insist on staying in politics anyway.  The others:

• Bob Filner, the Democratic mayor of San Diego, is accused of sexually harassing several women.  Despite pleas from city officials and concerned citizens for Filner to resign from office, he has so far refused to.  But he did say he'd go into treatment for a couple of weeks.  We'll see if any of it took.
• Mark Sanford resigned as governor of South Carolina in 2011 after his affair with an Argentine woman became public, all the while claiming he was hiking up the Appalachian trail when he was really in Buenos Aires with his sweetie.  After his divorce from his wife and subsequent engagement to that Argentine woman, Sanford is now a Republican congressman.
• Eliot Spitzer was once Governor of New York, until his alleged dalliances with prostitutes forced him to resign.  Two failed TV talk shows later, Spitzer is running for office again, this time for New York City comptroller.  Oh, and he's on a tour to promote his latest book.

We hate to harp on this time and again.  With Syria and Egypt in crisis, Detroit in bankruptcy, Bradley Manning going to prison and Edward Snowden stuck in Russia for unearthing classified documents, the news media seem to be more interested in a couple of politicians who couldn't keep it in their pants.

They need help.  And so do we.