Weiner's resignation is OK with me.

[Jackpine Radical]

In reality, the sexting was no big deal.

And if he had owned up to it, then said it was nobody's ^@^%$# business, it would have blown over.

As it was, he left his supporters with a sense of being betrayed.

A lot of us (me included) went with his (sort of) denial, the hacking story, and Dumbart's track record, and crawled out on a limb defending him against the wingnuts. Truth to tell, I thought maybe we had gotten Dumbart and his nest of vipers exactly in the gunsights of justice for once. Caught them maybe even planting false evidence.

Then Weiner jerked the rug out from those supporters.

Yeah, it's OK with me if he resigns.

And as for the comparison with Clinton, in political terms there is no comparison, even though what Clinton did was arguably much worse. The difference is in the practical consequences. The resignation of a liberal Congresscritter from a liberal district is no big deal. He will be replaced by another liberal, preferably one with a penchant for keeping it in his pants.

A successful impeachment of Clinton would have cost America a great deal. It would at least have hastened the national dissolution to which the Imbeciles of Darkness are now bringing us.

[MineralMan]

1. Yup. I defended him strongly, only to have him 'fess up

on the same day. I believed him. Lots of people believed him. His lying about the whole thing was what did him in.

[TBF]

2. Clinton survived his lies so perhaps Weiner thought he would too ..

or he's in massive denial about his behavior (which is very common, ask any psychologist). Edwards not only lied but also concocted an elaborate cover-story. It's hard to demand that republicans resign (even when they are so bold as to fly to other countries on the taxpayer dollar for their dalliances), when dems are in the same boat. They all show pretty poor judgment.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. When have the Democrats ever asked a Republican to resign?

I'm sorry, but Anthony Weiner being forced to resign by his own party only shows how disloyal the Democrats are toward their own.

It shows our weakness when we never hear our Party call for the resignation of Vitter, or Ensign, or Sanford, or Craig. In fact, at least the Republicans circle the wagons around their own whereas the Dems have the tendency to toss one of ours under the wheels.

I wholly discouraged.

[MineralMan]

6. Nixon. You may remember Nixon.

Or perhaps you're not old enough.

Gingrich.

You're old enough to remember him, I bet.

[BlueCaliDem]

7. You had to go waaay back to then to find one? What Nixon did was nothing

compared to Vitter, Ensign, Delay, Craig, Sanford, when it comes to sex scandals. REAL scandals. But these men remained in office and were protected by their own Party.

Even now, when Ryan's VoucherCare bill has cost the Republicans a seat in NY-26, the Republicans don't back down, and they don't throw him under the bus. Hell, they're even standing up for him with more vigor, demanding the same from their sorry group of presidential hopeless.

[MineralMan]

9. You didn't give me a time limit, as I remember.

You asked. I gave you two examples.

[SOS]

10. The tapes were ordered released to Jaworski

unanimously by the Supreme Court with five Republican-appointed justices voting against Nixon's interests.
The 1972 Senate had 56 Democrats.
Not enough to convict.
But Nixon knew his party had turned on him.

It was Republican turncoats who forced Nixon out, not the Democrats.

[kestrel91316]

18. Those were a LONG time ago. In recent history, since this 9/11terraterraterra crap,

Dems refuse to take Repukes to task and demand resignation, even when they commit true crimes.

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. Nixon was not a sex scandal - he committed prosecutable crimes.

That's a whole nother level. Same with Gingrich - he didn't get the boot because of some daliance, but because of criminal fraud, which they declined to prosecute upon his resignation.

Not the same thing at all.

[dkf]

17. I don't think it shows Republican strength to have Vitter still in office.

He is their poster boy. I say keep him there as a representative of what the Republican party stands for.

[MineralMan]

5. Clinton survived because he was President. Tossing a

President is a far more serious matter than tossing a Representative. Anyhow, Weiner is resigning. He's not being impeached.

[brentspeak]

15. Truly embarrassing pictures that are now easily available the world over via the Web

are what did Weiner in -- and which distinguish Weiner's scandal from all others.

[TBF]

20. Perhaps so -

Every case of bad behavior needs to be judged on it's own merit, and this one is pretty embarrassing. Looking at it as a married, middle-aged woman, I could completely understand his wife encouraging him to resign (no idea whether she did or not, just saying ...). If he wants to save his marriage he's got some work to do ...

[avaistheone1]

29. Embarrassing, yes. Laws broken - nope.

Didn't even cheat on his wife.

Not even any nude pictures either.

What a freaking tempest in a teapot.

[Orsino]

25. Finished him in many of our minds, I'm sure.

But politically? 'Twas the dick pics, and only the dick pics.

[sketchy]

3. I agree

n/t

[tularetom]

8. The next Democrat who's tempted to speak out better be squeaky clean

It's the intimidation of other Dems that pisses me off the most. Our representatives are not noted for having spines anyway and now that they see what has happened to one who dared to point out some of the shit that's going on they'll retreat even further into their mouse holes.

I hope none of them have never so much as looked at a picture of a nekkid girl in Playboy, they'll be exposed as the degenerates they are if they stand up to the PTB.

Weiner probably did have to resign but it would have been nice if Pelosi, Schultz and his other so called allies would have kept their pieholes shut and talked to him privately. Their actions say as much about their character as Weiner's did about his.

I'm not proud of our party today.

[ej510]

11. Corporate dems hate progressives.

[PeaceNikki]

12. It's always been about the colassal stupidity for me.

People have affairs, sext, flirt all the time. He sent lewd pictures and communicated with not one, not two, not three, but (at least) SIX random women he didn't know at ALL on the internet. People he didn't know and couldn't even come close to trusting. Now it's an issue and it's the ONLY thing we're talking about. And we wouldn't be if he hadn't been such a fucking fool. His credibility is shot. He clearly has ZERO sense of judgement if he thought his actions would not get out. Fucking idiot. How did you think this would end, Weiner? I really thought you were a smart man.

He used the same account for public communication as he used to tweet his peeper. That's weird and wrong. If any of us had an account on Twitter or Facebook that we used for our high-profile jobs, then used it to find customers/potential customers who liked us to troll for people we could "cyber" with THEN used the SAME said account to do that, we'd quite understandably be toast.

[savalez]

16. Well said. n/t

[kestrel91316]

19. Yep. Even I have the sense to not mix business with pleasure

of the sort that some might disapprove.

[Raine]

30. Me too

and I said it again and again. I think resigning was the right decision.

The big problem I have outside of his stupidity is the piling on him by elected Democrats. It's become habitual with them, Democrats never stand up for anyone or anything. They didn't even have to support him and speak up for him, they should've just kept their big mouths shut. Let either the voters decide his fate or have let him to come to his decision himself. In the end Weiner should've known from the past that Democrats would turn on him, he was stupid to not have seen that coming.

[JohnnyLib2]

13. Sad thing, but cold political reality is in play.

I don't think comparisons with any of the other men work at all well. This episode has too much miscalculation of the risks (by AW), hits too close to family life (who's in contact with MY daughter?) and too much ridicule-potential. And a politician named Weiner should surely have been aware of that.

[brentspeak]

14. I defended Weiner when the Breitbart attacks began

And believed, at first, that it was possible that it was all just a Breitbart fabrication (there have been Breitbart fabrications in the past, as there will be more in the future). But when Weiner admitted that, yes, it really was him who texted the pictures, after all, I knew it was just a matter of time before he'd have to step down. He torpedoed what would have otherwise been a lifetime job being a strong progressive voice in the House.

[LoZoccolo]

21. I think he'll be replaced by someone with similar views anyways.

He seems to be in a very safe district, which made it easy for him to do some of the things and say some of the things that he did. I can easily see someone similar taking his place.

[Orsino]

22. I reckon.

Losing his progressive voice is a blow, but I think it's neutralized more or less permanently.

[SoCalDem]

23. Amen. Fess up, say you did a stupid thing and move on

refuse to discuss it further.. It may still mean resignation later, but STFU ASAP.

The thing that did him in was the fact that he's close to FIFTY YEARS OLD....and what he did online is unseemly for a man his age, in his life-situation.

It was immature, silly, dangerous (to his personal life), and he did it AFTER he had "warning" that he was being snooped on...

If he had been a neophyte congressman in his 20's it would have been funny, and he could have recovered.."Oh those goofy kids!"..

He's a man past middle age (how many 102 yr old men do you know?), in a position of power, with high aspirations for where his life was headed, and he threw it all down the shitter for acting like a 13 yr old whose Mom has just found his stash of magazines under the bed..

[Nedsdag]

24. Me too!

Unfortunately, we live in a "Beavis & Butthead" world, and when your last name is Weiner, you literally have to be a saint. You cannot send nude pictures of yourself on line, especially with the sophisticated technology out there.

Yes, he was a good congressman and a progressive, but his stupidity and arrogance did him in.

[Major Hogwash]

26. His brilliance was wasted in a minority party with no spine this term anyway!

Better for him to get out now and save his strength from beating his head against the wall fighting the majority AssKlown party in the House, say he was sorry, recuperate, rehabilitate, and spend more attention on his wife, have the baby, live like a renaissance man for 6 months, and then come back like gangbusters, and make his run for Mayor.

Weiner was one of the best congressmen we had in our party and his presence, his wit, his passion will be missed.
I will never say anything bad about Representative Weiner because he told the truth about Clarence Thomas and his wife's lobbyist position advocating against the national health care plan that Congress passed last year.

Representative Weiner got the 9-11 responder's benefits bill passed after 9 years by being the loudest speaker for their cause. And for that, I am eternally grateful.
He had our best interests at heart and had our backs, I think we should have his back.

[donheld]

28. Maybe now he can get his own show on CNN like Eliot did

[girl_interrupted]

31. Tell you what, it's not okay with me

And if you think in your wildest dreams, if he would have fessed up and this would have blown over, you're dreaming. The right wing would not let up, not after they saw his party run like a bunch of scared rabbits. His supporters? Like who? His Party? That's a joke. His constituents? Polls indicated they wanted him to stay..but hey, no one bothered to ask any of them. It was the "Party" that made the decision for them. Oh, Democrats love to talk about voter fraud. But a guy who was duly elected..you don't ask....it's just, resign. No, it was determined once again, that the best way to handle a scandal is to crawl on your belly away from it. I'm sorry but this lay down and take it attitude Dems have is stomach turning.

Yeah and it was all about "lying" with Clinton too. Except it wasn't, it was about sex, same thing here. You can send kids off to war for any stupid reason and they can come home missing limbs or in a box, but that doesn't offend the sensibilities of Democrats. Why ? Cause it's their guy in there now and the blood is on his hands....so look away.

I love how Democrats talk about republicans eating their own. Maybe its time to look in a mirror.

Unemployment, homelessness, poverty you name it...that can wait. But a guy in a sex scandal? Well that has to be fixed immediately! He will hurt our cause!

I am so pissed tonite. We had one voice to get up there and scream, one voice to even question what was going on with Clarence Thomas. Trust me, you won't hear another word about Thomas again. Bet thats ok with you too.

And here is what I can't help but to find the most ironic. Obama, well hey, if it was him...he would have resigned! What about his good buddy Ted Kennedy? That was a dead girl underwater. So let me think... a bj,cybersex or a dead girl...what is worse? Ted Kennedy turned his life around, but thats was no thanks to the current crop of Dems, we now have. They would have put him on a clothesline and hung him out to dry.

No, glad its "ok" with you, but it's not "ok" with a lot of us.