Anguish twisted Tony Weiner’s face as he confessed before TV cameras to sending lewd photos of himself over Twitter to six women he never met — and then lying about it over and over again when he was found out.
Rep. Anthony D. Weiner was — the tense is correct — a rising star in New York’s Democratic party, a man many thought would become mayor of New York City. So what was he doing, prowling around in the ether net world exchanging lewd comments with women he didn’t know and made no effort to actually meet?
Whatever the psychological diagnosis, the consequence was to ruin a career and, most probably, change the course of his own personal life forever.
Weiner is 47 and uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all the other ways to communicate across the Web with teenager expertise. He knows how — but apparently didn’t understand that anything sent out over the ’net becomes public property instantaneously. So all of his sick electronic groping made the evening news and gave talk show hosts fresh meat.
Weiner said he won’t resign. Why he won’t is a mystery. Nothing he says or does can rehabilitate him anytime soon. The people have the right to demand that the men and women they elect to do the nation’s business have reasonably good judgment and understand that actions have consequences. Weiner failed both tests miserably. He should get out of there.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
