Downfall of Anthony Weiner, a disgraced politician

 

This article is going to deal with Anthony Weiner, the embattled candidate who is running for the position of New York City’s mayor. His outrageous conduct over the past few years has been outright stupid and that word in this instance is an understatement.

Anthony Weiner was born on September 4, 1964 and is an American politician and former U.S. representative who served New York's 9th congressional district from January 1999 until June 2011.  He was asked to resign from Congress as New York’s 9^th congressional district representative because of a series of stupid acts he committed.

Aside from acting like an ass, he is one of the most intense and demanding of bosses. Those who worked for him said that he required them to be in constant contact with him by Blackberry. He also frequently yelled at them, and occasionally threw office furniture around his office in anger. As a result, according to the Times, he had one of the highest staff turnover rates of any member of Congress, including, at one point, three chiefs of staff in 18 months. In other words, he was an office bully. A 2010 license plate check by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call showed that Weiner's vehicles were among several owned by members of Congress which had outstanding parking tickets. Weiner's past due fines which spanned three years and totaled more than $2,000 were among the highest uncovered by Roll Call. It was only when an article about this deadbeat was published that he finally paid the arrears owing on his unpaid fines.

However, it wasn’t him being a bully and a deadbeat that brought this politician’s career as a congressman to a disgraceful end. It was his addiction as an exhibitionist that finished his role as New York’s 9th district’s representative in Congress.

He had an unhealthy desire to show off his penis to women whom he believed would be sexually excited if they saw his appendage. I don’t know if that excited any of them sexually but if it looks anything like his face, it would turn them off which apparently, it did. Now don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of people who are not good looking who are also extremely bright and personable. But this twerp is neither bright nor personable.

What kind of person is an exhibitionist who wants strangers to see their genitals?

When exhibitionism interferes with a person's quality of life or normal functioning capacity, it is considered a psychological disorder. It is a sexual deviation called Paraphilia. Anyone who shows off his penis in public or over the Internet is clearly a sexual deviate. Many psychiatric definitions of exhibitionism broadly define it as a form of sexual gratification, above and beyond the sexual act itself that is achieved by risky public sexual activity and/or bodily exposure. And you can be sure that if you display your genitalia to someone over the Internet, as sure as God made little apples, you will really risk a public showing. And that is what happened.

When Weiner decided to send a young woman a picture of his crotch, he made a common mistake between a direct private message and a public reply, and inadvertently sent the picture out to the tens of thousands of people who were his followers. Journalists, political rivals, and right-wing muckrakers had no problem finding multiple women who had flirted and even received more graphic photos of his so-called private Twitter messages.

Thus began Weiner's monumental error in judgment (and lack of taste and decency) when he decided to engage in dirty talk with virtual strangers via Twitter and Facebook and tweeting pictures of his genitalia in an aroused state and even pursuing contact with a 17-year-old schoolgirl.

In 2011 when this sleazebag was still a Congressman, he was first caught sending photos of his penis to women he originally didn't know. He claimed that it wasn't him who sent the photos.  He said that it had to be a prank intended to derail his reputation. He said, "Now maybe it will turn out to be the point of AlQueda's sword."  Then he realized that that excuse wasn't going to pass muster so he let it be known that he spent $43,000 of his campaign  funds to try and find out who the culprit was that was sending photos of penis to the women.  Later, while the truth became obvious as to who sent them, he publicly admitted that it was he alone that sent them.

 

If you think that the train disaster that took place in Spain in July of 2013 was momentous, consider the bad publicity that Weiner was going through. If there was ever a train wreck that would demolish a politician’s career—showing your genitals over the Internet and being found out publicly is a career-ending catastrophe if there ever was one. On top of that blunder, he lied about it claiming that a hacker had done it. Anyone with even passing knowledge of technology would have realized that the online trail would eventually have led to the discovery that he and he alone had sent the messages and that he was lying about doing so. Weiner was asked by Nancy Polosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives to resign, which on June 11, 2011, he did.

Now one would think that he wouldn’t enter politics again. Well, that is just what he did. He figured that if New Yorkers believed in him when they voted him into Congress, they might also vote him into the office of the mayor of New York so he ran for that office and at the time of this article being published on my blog, he is still running for that office. Weiner downplayed his admission that he continued to engage in online sexual relationships with at least three women after he resigned from Congress in June of 2011. He argued that he has already apologized to his supporters and hinted that he is tiring of discussing his marital infidelities.  He may be tired of rehashing those events in his life but the media isn’t. A Marist poll conducted for NBC 4 New York and the Wall Street Journal on July 25, 2013 showed Weiner falling to nine-point deficit behind frontrunner Christine Quinn. It would appear that many voters in New York aren’t letting Weiner off the hook either.

It is interesting to note that the further disgraced politicians retreat from the incident that brought them down, their need for glory and power increases exponentially. The reason for this is because when they resigned from public office because of embarrassing wrongdoings, their resignations more or less cauterized their wounds before the politicians bled out during official inquiries that would have followed if they hadn`t resigned. Then when the wounds heal and only the scars remain, their eyes widen, not unlike a child looking at more than he can eat, and they begin searching for an opportunity to grab a piece of that political rainbow that is tantalizing them.  

Pelosi called Weiner’s behaviour “reprehensible” and “disrespectful of women. I agree with her. If Weiner had displayed his wiener (now there is a play on words) to a woman who expressed an interest in seeing it, then he could be forgiven but when he shows it to women unsolicited; that is something else.

Despite the bad publicity he is undergoing, he has vowed to continue his campaign against a fractured Democratic primary field.

When after admitting that he had continued to send images of his penis over the Internet after having seen a psychiatrist, he said; “I am still seeking professional help for my online behaviour which I do not believe is an addiction.”  Him calling exhibitionism not an addiction is like calling alcoholism not an addiction.

Controversy exists over what some mental health experts refer to as hyper sexuality, or sexual addiction. Recently medical scientists did a study on this subject and concluded that hyper sexuality is more akin to impulse-control disorders like kleptomania or gambling. Dr. Timothy Fong, associate professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and director of its impulse control disorders clinic admitted, “We cannot jump to the conclusion that sex addiction is not real. Instead, we need to understand more about the relationship between sexual desire and sexual behavior.” Collin’s Dictionary defines ‘addict’ to mean; a person who is devoted to something. Weiner was certainly devoted to displaying his penis publicly over the Internet. Anyone who continued to do that after he had been publicly humiliated and at the same time wanted to return to politics was in my opinion, a hyper sexuality addict. Now I believe him when he says he isn’t doing that anymore but it doesn’t change the past. He was a hyper sexuality addict.

Do voters forgive politicians who sway off the path of righteousness? Yes, many of them do. Consider how the former president of the United States, Clinton fared after it was discovered that he had an oral sexual affair with an intern in the White House and was later sued by a woman who claimed he sexually harassed her when he was a governor of one of the States. He managed to keep his reputation as a very intelligent man even though his sexual escapades were really dumb.

As much as the citizens and the media both love to see its idols and politicians fall from grace, they seem to love stories of redemption even more. Despite that, I think the voters in New York may wonder if they vote Weiner in as the mayor of their city, he might begin displaying his penis over the Internet again. If he does, he will have to resign again and that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars to hold another election for the position of mayor of their city. Those millions of dollars could be put to better use. Despite increasing calls for Anthony Weiner to withdraw from the New York City mayoral race and the polls aren`t showing up in his favour, the former congressman is at the time of this writing, continuing with his campaign.

Any politician can change his character but surely those politicians who seek public office after they have conducted themselves outrageously in the recent past raises the specter that their primary focus is directed towards their own needs such as power and glory than the welfare and other needs of those they claim they will serve.  It remains to be seen however whether or not Weiner`s road to the office of the mayor of New York City is paved with good intentions or just typical political opportunism.

I can’t help but wonder if this disgraced politician has brought to us a new word in the English language.  The word I am thinking about is ‘weinerized’. In a sentence, it could be used as follows—The politician was weinerized when it was discovered that he publicly displayed his genitals. 

I will keep you updated as more information unfolds.

UPDATE:  September 11, 2013 This dimwit came in 5th place in the New York mayoralty race with only 5% of the votes. The final insult he displayed after losing the race was another appendage he showed the public---his middle finger. Will he return in the future to run for office again? I wouldn't be surprised if he did. These kinds of dimwits never give up because they still think voters are stupid. Well, only 5% of the New York voters were stupid in that mayoralty race.