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Mark Steyn: Tweet of Clay (Weinergate)
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | June 08, 2011 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 06/09/2011 10:27:14 AM PDT by neverdem

Ramesh, as an antidote to Maureen Dowd’s take, here’s Weiner’s former girlfriend Kirsten Powers. When the Twit hit the fan, Kirsten received certain assurances from him about his innocence and, based on those, went out on Fox and elsewhere and defended him. Unlike too many my-Democrat-right-or-wrong types, she’s done with him:

As I have recovered from the shock of seeing an old friend’s life unravel and have had time to get my mind around the extensive and sociopathic lying in which he engaged, there seems to be no other choice than for him to step aside and stop hurting his family, friends, and the Democratic Party… [I] was slack-jawed when I saw clips of him the next day sneering and pointing fingers at other people for what he knew he had done. I am of the general view that politicians are not the most honest group of people, but, even using that very low standard, what I saw in those interviews was deeply disturbing. There is no way anyone can ever believe anything Weiner says again after that. 

Which is more or less what I said yesterday. But I never dated the guy. Apropos her appearance on “Hannity,” she says:

My friends were furious when the real information came out and they realized he had allowed me to become involved in his sordid controversy.

In effect, he conscripted her into his lies. Now, in demanding he be allowed to “go back to work for the American people,” he’s forcing the entire country to collude in them. Kirsten also makes the point that his press conference was merely the sociopath’s latest lie:

What has emerged is a picture of a predator trolling the Internet for women—some half his age—with which to engage in cybersex. We know only about the women who were responsive to his overtures. The odds are very high that he struck out with many, and other women were victim to his unsolicited sex talk. Women should be able to “friend” a married—or unmarried—congressman on Facebook or follow him on Twitter without fear of being the recipient of lewd talk or behavior. Just because a woman “likes” your video on Facebook doesn’t mean you can send her a picture of your penis.

That a feminist Democrat should even have to explain that to her fellow liberals is a fine example of how the Weinerization of the culture leads to a moral compass as flaccid as . . . oh, never mind. In that ABC interview, Weiner persisted in blurring the distinction between those who “follow” him” and those whom he “follows.” His latest weaselly obfuscation is to focus on those women who responded to his unsolicited penis as opposed to those who didn’t. It would seem to be statistically improbable that his Weiner and the accompanying fantasies (see Miss Powers’ selected excerpts) did not end up in the inbox of various 16 and 17-year-olds who never asked for it.

Like Kirsten Powers, I have minimal expectations of this country’s depraved political class. But if you can’t draw the line at being ruled by creeps with a spambot penis, you can’t draw it anywhere. Anthony Weiner tweets his crotch to young women on the grounds that, even if only one in twenty responds, that’s still a helluva strike rate: Shame on him. If his electors and the broader political culture acquiesces in that, shame on us.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 0twiddlededee; 0twiddlededum; dncmember; dncmemberatwork; dncmemberinoffice; dncmemberrico; dncmorals; dncrico; dncseeksteens; dncseekstweens; dncweinergate; followthedncweiner; followtheweiner; forthechildren; normaldncmember; privilegeddncmember; spambotpenis; typicaldncmember; weiner; weinergate
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1 posted on 06/09/2011 10:27:18 AM PDT by neverdem
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To: JLS

Ping


2 posted on 06/09/2011 10:30:11 AM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

“There is no way anyone can ever believe anything Weiner says again after that”

And therein lies perhaps the shiniest part of the silver lining of this Weiner-shaped cloud for us. While having discraced himself and his office, Weiner has utterly ruined his personal credibility. Where he once appeared as a liberal voice even on Fox News, he will from here on out evoke juvenile thoughts and snickers. He has well and truly screwed himself, and no one deserves it more.


3 posted on 06/09/2011 10:32:59 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: neverdem

Figures Kirsten Powers would date this guy. Seems like her (or any other media feminist’s) type.


4 posted on 06/09/2011 10:33:31 AM PDT by JacksonCalhoun (CT Yankee in NC Exile)
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To: neverdem
Just because a woman “likes” your video on Facebook doesn’t mean you can send her a picture of your penis.


5 posted on 06/09/2011 10:36:25 AM PDT by frogjerk (Liberalism: The ideology of envy.)
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To: neverdem
But if you can’t draw the line at being ruled by creeps with a spambot penis, you can’t draw it anywhere

LOL.

6 posted on 06/09/2011 10:38:41 AM PDT by agere_contra ("Debt is the foundation of destruction" : Sarah Palin.)
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To: bigbob

>>> “There is no way anyone can ever believe anything Weiner says again after that” >>>

Or after being duped for so long, no way we can believe anything Kirsten Powers says again either.


7 posted on 06/09/2011 10:39:56 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (American Thinker Columnist / Rush ghost contributor)
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To: neverdem
"the Weinerization of the culture"

Brilliant!

8 posted on 06/09/2011 10:40:14 AM PDT by Bed_Zeppelin
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To: neverdem

What a shame such a beautiful woman has the social graces of a black widow.. or Praying Mantis..

To be friends with Wiener it must be so.. she must be a handful for a normal american.. Otherwise how could she get along with such a neurotic character as Wiener.. unless she was not wrapped too tight herself..


9 posted on 06/09/2011 10:42:48 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
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To: neverdem
My “outrage” at Weiner’s conduct is totally political. I am glad this happened. When Duke Cunningham went wrong, I was truly sad. I supported him and hoped for great things from him in the future. If I could have paid the money back myself and somehow rehabilitated it all away, I would have.
There is no question which scandal did the most actual harm to this country. I hated Weiner, and loved Duke before and after, and I don't like what that says about myself.
10 posted on 06/09/2011 10:47:10 AM PDT by kbennkc (For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.)
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To: neverdem

bump


11 posted on 06/09/2011 10:47:18 AM PDT by Christian4Bush (Public Service Announcement. As of 6/9/11, 516 days 'til we take out the trash. (November 6 2012))
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To: neverdem

P’ding


12 posted on 06/09/2011 10:51:41 AM PDT by skeptoid (The road to serfdom is being paved by RINOs, and Lisa Murkowski is their mascot.)
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To: neverdem
"He who is void of virtuous Attachments in private Life, is, or very soon will be void of all Regard for his Country. There is seldom an Instance of a Man guilty of betraying his Country, who had not before lost the Feeling of moral Obligations in his private Connections." (Emphasis added) - Samuel Adams - Letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

America's Founders understood human nature and the human tendency to betray trust, to abuse delegated power, and need for a written Constitution to protect "We, the People" from such flaws in human nature.

Although the recent false idea that persons in positions of power can "compartmentalize" their tendencies in such a way that disloyalty and lack of fidelity to friends and family do not signify the same tendencies in matters of public trust, wise persons throughout the ages have known better.

13 posted on 06/09/2011 10:56:00 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: neverdem
This is a very good article by Steyn.

In effect, he conscripted her into his lies.

This particular point is why I think Weiner will be gone before next Monday. It's one thing to conscript a bunch of half-witted partisan sycophants into your lies, but the truth is that he got a lot of big Democratic names involved in this, too. These are the people who are going to drive him out of office.

And I say it's going to happen before Monday because Congress has been out of session for a couple of weeks, and they're back in session on Monday . . . and this Weiner can never show his ugly face to his own Democratic associates in Congress again.

"I don’t know the details, but I know him [Weiner] to be a person of integrity and I am virtually certain he had nothing to do with this." -- U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), 5/31/11

14 posted on 06/09/2011 11:01:06 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: P-Marlowe; blue-duncan; wmfights; Forest Keeper; Kolokotronis; usafrjag; neverdem
What has emerged is a picture of a predator trolling the Internet for women—some half his age—with which to engage in cybersex.

If this were a manager trolling for sexual response in an office setting among a company full of female employees, that manager could be charged with harrassment by one female, and the serial harrassment by the manager of the others could be used as evidence in proving the case of the lady making leveling the charge.

The serious nature is that the manager held power over those women, and the system would not view favorably his abuse of power. He and his company would be liable for millions. He could go to jail.

In the instance of Weiner, he identified himself as a powerful sitting congressman. Is not the "company" of which he is a part the US of A? Does his power not intimidate when he is seen on TV wielding that power and when stories abound of those who've paid horribly for angering politicians or other powerful people?

I believe his "partners" were intimidated, and I think they should charge him and sue both him and his employer for sexual harrassment and predation. They should argue that his power was intimidating, and they should show the number of women harrassed as evidence of his predation.

15 posted on 06/09/2011 11:02:25 AM PDT by xzins
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To: loveliberty2

That is a very apt quote.

By now Weiner must have lost all feeling in his private connections.


16 posted on 06/09/2011 11:05:00 AM PDT by agere_contra ("Debt is the foundation of destruction" : Sarah Palin.)
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To: neverdem

No one, to my knowledge, is saying it, but this whole matter is a bit broader than a mere sex scandal. It can’t have escaped notice that both the Dems’ most provacative talking heads—Wiener and Debbie Wasserman Schultz—are Jewish. And while Schultz’s chances for noteriety of any kind will never approach Wiener’s, she’s nonetheless a lightning rod in an already overexposed institution. The Democrat party can hardly afford to alienate any more Jews—liberals or otherwise. Which, interestingly, leaves the ultimate censure solely to Schultz.


17 posted on 06/09/2011 11:29:22 AM PDT by Mach9
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To: neverdem

D.C = Land of the flagrant and the home of the brazen.

Keep Wiener in DC and NYC. You deserve him.


18 posted on 06/09/2011 11:35:01 AM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto.)
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To: neverdem
Kirsten received certain assurances from him about his innocence and, based on those, went out on Fox and elsewhere and defended him.

Without doing an ounce of journalism, she goes on national TV and spits out the hand delivered talking points and I'm supposed to feel bad for her.

She's nothing more than a Democratic, talking point propagandist.

19 posted on 06/09/2011 11:38:36 AM PDT by CharacterCounts (November 4, 2008 - the day America drank the Kool-Aid)
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To: xzins; P-Marlowe; blue-duncan; wmfights; Forest Keeper; Kolokotronis; usafrjag; neverdem
If this were a manager trolling for sexual response in an office setting among a company full of female employees, that manager could be charged with harrassment by one female, and the serial harrassment by the manager of the others could be used as evidence in proving the case of the lady making leveling the charge.

Great Point!

I thought Breitbart had a good point as well. He said that we should worry about the ability of someone to blackmail weiner if they had this info and the public didn't know. We can see from weiner's subsequent actions how important having power is to him. What happens with a congressman like this that gets on a committee that gets highly classified briefings. If a foreign power has this information would he sell out this country to keep his power?

20 posted on 06/09/2011 11:39:49 AM PDT by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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