Fallout

I am a progressive.  Right now, I am wincing.

The entire Anthony Weiner debacle just keeps spiraling out of control.  I feel a bit sorry for Jon Stewart, who has stated that Weiner is a friend, and discussed the difficulty of taking what would be the obvious juvenile route to mockery here, a route which I have no doubt he would have not hesitated to go down had it been someone else.  He has made fun of Weiner, but my hunch is the tone would have been a little different had it been a conservative Republican.*  (Not that it hasn't included its own juvenalia: the yelling penis on the "Cock-blocked Stories of The Week" was pretty humorous.)  (My favorite comment by Stewart, following Weiner's statement that he could not confirm that the picture was not of him, was along the lines "I may not know a lot of things, but I do know what my erect penis looks like.")

And I feel sorry for Weiner.  That the hell you're experiencing is of your own making does not make it less of a hell.  I feel very sorry for the young woman at the center of this firestorm. I feel especially sorry for Weiner's wife, who never asked for this and who, in addition to coming to grips with the fact that her husband has a serious problem, has to do so in the glare of the public spotlight.

But what I fear is that all the good Weiner has done in his time in Congress has gone completely down the drain.  The man in the forefront of health care reform, who showed intelligence, wit, a fighting spirit and, most of all, a willingness to take on the Republicans, has self-destructed.  And may be taking  a lot of progressives with him, politically speaking.

One of my favorite quotes is listed on the sidebar here: "An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it."  Don Marquis was a pretty insightful guy. After all, the fact that Karl Marx was all for mandatory public education for children does not make it a bad idea. That Richard Nixon signed the acts creating both the EPA and OSHA, not to mention the Clean Water Act and Title IX does not make those pieces of legislation suspect.

Clearly, we as a country feel far differently.  To listen to the emphasis on "character" and the focus on scandal** rather than actual substance in, for example, election campaigns says to me that as a society we have no desire to follow Marquis's advice. That applies not only to Weiner, but to Bill Clinton, and Newt Gingrich, and many other men (and a few women) in the public eye who have acted in a less than upright manner.  (As far as I am concerned, the reason to dislike and fear Gingrich is not how he may have treated his first wife, as despicable as that is purported to be, but that his proposed policies would be disastrous.)

I predict there will be political fallout from this affair for Democrats and progressives (recognizing that the two groups are not necessarily the same) for a long time to come.  Thank God it was not closer to the elections.



*In spite of Stewart's protestations,  he does serve as a journalist of sorts.  This demonstrates something that is problematic for all journalists, that of being friends with the people they may be covering.  He has at least been upfront about the issue, which one suspects most members of the news corps -- pundits and reporters alike -- would not be.  On the other hand, it had already reported, so it may have been damage control.  It's not like I'm cynical.  Not at all.  After all, Stewart is today's Walter Cronkite -- if you can't trust him to make fun of everyone who deserves it, whom can you trust?

**Of course I am all for prosecuting politicians who have broken the law, regardless of their ideologies.  To the extent that Weiner has done that, if he has, then he should be prosecuted the same as anyone else.  I felt that way about Mark Foley, too.