Anthony Weiner: The Shameless Society
Jules Witcover

June 26, 2011

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner from the House of Representatives was that he held a press conference to announce it.

In earlier, better days, a politician so thoroughly disgraced by his personal conduct might have been expected simply to slink off in a dark corner and relieve his betrayed constituents of the further embarrassment of a public mea culpa. But the culture of the day seems to demand the Western version of hari-kiri or self-immolation.

That the nature of today's world of instant gratification followed by disclosure, not always instant, through the various devices of the so-called social media, from the Internet to abominations such as Twitter.

That ludicrous invention, which enables everybody to inform everybody else of their most innermost or outermost thoughts, ideas or just plain musings in 140 character of less, is the latest plague on the art of communication.

That and the other marvel of this age, Facebook, became instruments of Weiner's folly and downfall. And now fingers all over this country no doubt are flying over computer keyboards today gossiping in shorthand over the inevitable political demise of this self-centered jerk from New York.

Scandal, of course, is nothing new to American politics, particularly of the sexual nature, which seems to stir the interest of the vox populi more than insidious crimes such as the stealing of public funds or selling fake public investments. Consider, for example, the recent arrest of a finance wizard on charges of raping a New York hotel chambermaid.

But the willingness of public figures, dependent as they are on the support of voters to maintain their jobs, to engage in sexual behavior at the risk of public discovery seems to be a special infirmity, sending the offenders rushing to psychiatrists' couches. Weiner has pledged to make the dash himself.

In the brief press conference, he apologized to his constituents and his pregnant wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Cinton, making the dismal saga even juicier.

The pathetic New Yorker resigned, but only after direct advice from the leader of his party in the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the president of the United States himself to walk the plank. Whether he finally jumped or was pushed is irrelevant, though the matter of the fate of this small-timer should not have come to that.

Coming on the heels of the indictment in another sexual farce of a much more prominent Democrat, former senator and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, The Party of the People has more egg on its collective face, though the Republicans have had their share as well

Earlier this year, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, a self-described religious conservative, resigned in the face of a Senate ethics investigation of an affair with the wife of his top aide that included allegations of hush money paid by his parents.

"While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings or especially public hearings," Ensign said on resigning.

Twelve years after another president, Bill Clinton, was impeached by the House in relation to sexual misconduct in the Oval Office no less, but was acquitted in the Senate by the votes of Democrats holding their noses over the sordidness of that affair, the indiscretions go on.

There could hardly have been a more explicit and glaring illustration of the malady that seems to affect men of political ambition and power, yet Clinton was easily reelected in 1996. For all the public outcry at the time, the scandal was not enough to drive him from office.

Perhaps the rapid growth of the social media, including the spread of the shorthand analyses and complaints of the 140-character virus called Twitter, which didn't exist in Clinton's presidential years, will make public officials more guarded about their private sexual proclivities from now on. But don't bet on it.

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