Yes, the title of this blog post is taken from that old song by The Clash, and it's a song that Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York might be singing to himself over the next several days, or several weeks, or however long he is able to hold on to his congressional seat after yesterday's blockbuster revelation. A U.S. Congressman, an outspoken defender of liberal orthodoxy, a rising star aspiring to be Mayor of New York City, found to be sending sexually explicit photos of himself over the internet to women he had never met and barely knew. He had phone sex with some of these women as well, quite possibly from his congressional office. He had been lying for days about it, blaming the incident on a "hacker" or "prankster." And arguably worst of all, he was married just last year and continued to engage in this activity even after his marriage.
I was honestly pretty amazed at how much coverage the story received, but it seems as if Congressman Weiner had the misfortune of scheduling his apologetic news conference on a day when little else was going on in the world. As a result, it became the headline story for most media outlets, and sound bytes and images from that news conference were played over and over again on the evening and late night news.
As someone who has seen Weiner many, many times on television, it was surreal to see him at the podium yesterday. The brash, bold, Brooklyn attitude was nowhere to be found. His voice cracked; his eyes teared. The man who always makes it a point to look his interviewers right in the eye hung his head several times throughout the press conference. You can see that he was humiliated, and that inside he really was hurting. I actually almost felt sorry for him.
I say "almost" for two reasons. First of all, he made his bed and now has to lie in it. He has no one to blame for his actions but himself, so there is nothing unjust in that. But I also held back my sympathy because somehow, some way, in that dark pit of deep despair, via the slightest sparkle of light...his arrogance managed to shine through. For several times throughout the press conference, he made it a point to say that he would refuse to resign his congressional seat.
Weiner has lofty aspirations, always has and probably always will. I suppose he wasn't going to let them all slip away as the result of a few improper communications over the internet with strange women. And who could blame him? Several other politicians, including President Bill Clinton, survived worse. Did they not? I would even argue that his actions, though revile and reprehensible, are not as egregious as those of Charles Rangel. Yet Rangel was allowed to remain in his seat, though he was censured by the House Ethics Committee. So it comes as no surprise that Weiner plans to roll the dice with an ethics investigation.
It was interesting to see the array of viewpoints on whether Weiner should resign or whether he would be able to weather this storm. Pretty much every Democratic strategist or liberal pundit I saw on the news yesterday stated that Weiner should stay and that he would survive. The conservative commentators said that he should resign, and a number of them said he'd be lucky to last another week or two.
As for me, I say that every public servant who disgraces himself should resign out of respect for the office, the country, and the people he serves. But the reality is that most of them won't, because they're fighters by their very nature. You have to be a fighter to make it in politics, so very few of them are willing to give up that easy, even when the odds are against them.
Those who do resign usually do so only after being pressured by their colleagues. If their fellow congressmen can convince them that they are hurting the party by staying in office, then they will almost always give up their seat. The Republicans in the House have shown little tolerance for improper conduct, most recently with Congressman Chris Lee. But what will the Democrats do with Weiner?
Lee was a totally different animal because he was a virtual nobody. Few people ever even heard of him when news of his scandal broke. But Weiner has been an attack dog for the liberals, unleashed by the Democratic leadership to face off with the media and defend their big government, tax-and-spend agenda. Now that attack dog will have to be collared, leashed, and caged. You can be assured that this has already been done. Nancy Pelosi did call for an ethics investigation as well, but then again, what choice did she have?
I am not so sure that Weiner can survive this scandal for one major reason. Even as he is walled off by liberal brass and insulated from the media, his very presence in Congress remains a distraction. Yesterday's press conference wasn't the end of this story. It was just the beginning. One of the women involved has already come forward to tell her side, and you can bet that others will too. Pictures are still surfacing, and more juicy details are sure to be released at some point. It's just the nature of society in this day and age of digital technology and 24-hour press coverage.
The timing is particularly bad because the Democrats were starting to gain some momentum with their "Medi-scare" tactics. After Chris Lee resigned his seat, Democrats used the Ryan budget as a campaign tool in the special election. They even depicted Congressman Ryan wheeling an elderly woman off a cliff, implying that the Republicans' budget would ravage Medicare to the point that seniors would not be able to get the treatment they need. The sad part about it is that it worked. In a very Republican district, the Democrats scored a landslide victory.
But now, their momentum has been slowed, arguably even stopped dead, by the Weiner scandal. The story is not going away unless Weiner goes away, and Pelosi, Hoyer, Schumer, et al. all know it. They may be initiating an ethics investigation, but those can take several months, even more than a year, to complete. And the longer this drags on, the worse it is for Democrats.
In my honest opinion, I think Pelosi and company are doing the right thing for now. They're going to take a wait-and-see approach to dealing with this situation before demanding Weiner's resignation. If the story dies a quick death and they can get things back on track, they'll let the investigation play out and allow Weiner to keep his seat, albeit with a diminished role in Congress. But if more and more sordid details emerge each day and the story lingers, they may have to cut their losses. Campaign season has already started, and 2012 is shaping up to be one of the most important elections in U.S. history. They can't afford to have something like this get in the way.
It will be interesting to see what happens, but regardless of the outcome, I have absolutely no compassion or respect for Weiner. He was ready to destroy Andrew Breitbart's reputation to save his own career, and only backed off when there were no other options. Once the story broke that women were coming forward, he had no choice but to confess. So it's not as if he did a noble thing by finally coming forward. I hope he is forced to resign, but I won't be shocked if he holds on.
I will say one thing: I'll miss his verbal spars on the air with Hannity, O'Reilly, and Kelly. Those were pretty fun to watch. Now, the Democrats will have to nominate someone else for that role. Whoever that person is, I doubt they'll be as colorful and combative as the Congressman from New York. Good luck with this one, Dems. You're going to need it.
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