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Are All Male Politicians Potential “Weiners?”
Posted: by Speider Schneider in Labels: Anthony Weiner, horny politicians, political scandal, social media
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With all the Weiner stories flying, I was asked to write a commentary for askmen.com about how politicians shouldn't be allowed to have access to social media. Unfortunately, with the changing and emerging information and evidence every hour, my commentary got bumped off the front page for the "erotic texts" he sent to an unfortunate young supporter.
That's the news business! But in the blog business, there's always room for stories that end up being cut, so here it is...
Like so many before him, Democratic Congressman from New York, Anthony Weiner, has given his career the shaft with the latest round of digital goofery on Capitol Hill. Not since Nixon’s blunder with audio tape, and having people shake their heads at Dick, has technology led to a bigger load of mess for someone foolish enough to leave evidence staining his lustful indiscretions.
Weiner, after lying repeatedly over the incident, finally admitted that the photo of bulging boxer briefs was indeed a wad of trouble and it was his package of shame. The messy load of lies didn’t end with just that photo as he admitted to using social media to engage in “inappropriate contact” with six women over the course of three years. He may have been drawn in by their tweets or came upon their Facebook profiles but his lack of control sets the example that Washington needs parental locks on every single computer.
When former President, Bill Clinton got caught with his hand in… the cookie jar, we were spared the photos of stained dresses, soaked cigar ends and tweets of dirty talk between the Arkansas dog hound and the plump little Oval Office intern that would have caused rivers of vomit to flood American towns. Charlie Sheen may tweet about “winning” but one gags thinking off what Bill might have coined on Twitter or the photos sexted to Monica. Thank goodness social media was still young enough to not be used by Clinton and other political denizens.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised. Men will be men and social media has only created yet another avenue for us to act like complete idiots and the powerful horn-dogs in Washington are not immune to the draw of the web. Every day, some man hits send and his junk is wing-wanging around the web. When a celebrity does the same, it becomes a DVD and sales are bigger than Beatle albums. When a politician does it, we are in shock and disgust. We hold them to a higher standard… one without desire, lust and sex. They are like our parents – we know they did “it” as many times as we have siblings but we just don’t want to think about it.
Among the women Weiner contacted, Meagan Broussard told ABC News that Weiner "friended" her on Facebook after she commented on one of his speeches posted online on April 20. They exchanged more than 100 messages, and Weiner constantly tried to steer the conversation toward sex. What were those conversations and how did he try to steer them?
“Gee, representative Weiner… I really <3’d your speech!”
“Maybe you could give an oral recital to my closest friend and the two nuts he hangs around with? ;)”
“Is he a Senator or someone important?”
“Well, he’s ready to fill an important opening! ;)”
“I’d like to come to Washington one day and give you some ideas that would help the country!”
“I’ll personally poll you! ;)”
“Could you get me onto the congressional floor?”
“Oh, you bet but we might have to use the back door! ;)”
What is truly amazing is that these men who we entrust to run our nation don’t comprehend the simple fact that the digital world of social media is not an erasable marker board and they have never heard of a “retweet” or that other people can click on their feed profile and see everything they have tweeted. I’m willing to bet they don’t reset their Facebook privacy status every time it changes so any person or political rival can see their photos. Is it possible Mark Zuckerberg orders Facebook staff to change the settings every now and then, unannounced, for just this purpose? Makes Zuckerberg and the infuriating changes on Facebook a little more palatable, doesn’t it?
Weiner said he used his home computer and personal Blackberry, not government computers, in his exchanges with the women. But that may not protect him from House rules that say a member "shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."
“Reflect creditably on the House?" The way politics is run these days, I find a man acting out on his primal urges more credible than many of the laws introduced by other “upright” members of the House.” I just don’t want to see any pictures of them being “upright!”
