I think the "what the fuck?" moment for me came when Representative Weiner said that he could not be sure the crotch shot was not of him. Maybe he meant that over time he had taken so many crotch shots of himself that he couldn't be sure that this particular picture was not of him. His answer certainly did not suggest that there was no way in hell the shot was him. That never seemed to be implied.
From that moment it occurred to me, and probably a lot of others, that the stupid bastard was doing something he shouldn't have been.Along with many, because I really admire his politics, I wanted to believe that he was being set up, that he was not in any way responsible for sending these pictures far and wide. But again, as others have commented, his reaction was so obviously the worst example of damage control imaginable that he was either a really stupid man or a really bad liar. Sadly there is obviously truth in both.
Mostly I don't care that he has this weird hobby as long as we find out that this took place between consenting adults. Whether or not his marriage can survive this is, as far as I am concerned, between the Congressman and his wife. And, yes, the lying to the public is a problem.
But beside that, I see this as more of a personal tragedy by a man who did something incredibly stupid. God knows it's not a liberal vs. conservative thing. Men on both sides of the aisle have been doing stupid things when it comes to sex for a long time. That's not likely to change.
He wasn't publicly condemning behaviour he was personally engaged in either, another pathetic thing that some politicians have been known to do.
Look, I'm not defending him, I'm simply saying that politicians too often get away with lying to the country about things that are of huge political and moral consequence but when there's a penis involved or any hint of sexual indiscretion, by golly, stop the presses.
Call me crazy, but getting the country into a war based on a blatant lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction leading to the needless death of who knows how many is just a tad more immoral than some idiot who sends naughty pictures of himself to women over the internet or via twitter.
We just get so damned excited about sex. And if Weiner is actually telling the truth this time, there wasn't even any of that, just pictures and now we hear maybe a phone call or two. Okay. Not good.
Again, I'm not defending the man. It's icky. But let's keep things in perspective.
What a jackass.
Can we move on now? Probably not for a while, unfortunately.
(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)