Did Your Opinion of Congressman Weiner Change Due to Recent Revelations?

Rep Weiner (D-NY) has been in the news over the past week for his internet behavior. The newly married congressman has been sending flirty tweets and salacious pictures to various women for some time. A little more than a week ago he accidentally send one of the pictures through a public Tweet rather than through the Direct Message (DM) method. He quickly deleted his offensive picture of his crotch and made wild claims of being hacked. His story changed over the next couple days and he refused to request an investigation. Despite being ridiculed for avoiding an investigation, he was hoping the matter would just drop. However, yesterday more pictures he sent to other women surfaced as well as some of his internet chatting and he was forced to address the issue. Late yesterday afternoon, he admitted some limited misbehavior over the years with "about six women." The number of women is in scare quotes because I've done enough interviews of suspects to understand that words like "about," "approximately," etc. are used in order to minimize the quantity of their offenses. Now, if more than six women come forward he didn't lie because he did not definitively claim it was only six.

The title I used for this post was picked because of the different reactions I've seen online from people across the political spectrum regarding Weiner post-admission of misbehavior. For the last week or so, many liberals have been supporting Weiner with various versions of the "he's too smart to have done something so stupid." For those of us who have been disgusted with his political behavior over the years this episode was viewed not with surprise but rather as confirmation of his base character and lousy judgment.

My opinion of Weiner is no lower today than it was a year ago. This episode merely reinforces my opinion of him. Those who are surprised or shocked by his behavior have not been paying attention. Here is just one example, Weiner chose former president Bill Clinton to officiate at his wedding last year. If you have someone noted for being unfaithful throughout his own marriage officiate your marriage you are sending a message to your betrothed about your views on honesty and fidelity. By allowing him to pick Clinton, the bride was accepting that she was marrying someone unlikely to take his vows seriously.