Tag Archives: #weinergate

Good question: Was Weiner’s Twitter more vile than Vitter?

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Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) was outed as the client of a prostitute in 2007 but was not forced to resign.Why aren’t members of Congress and the media demanding that Senator David Vitter resign?

If you recall (and how can you forget?) Vitter was outed in 2007 during the DC Madam sex scandal as a frequent client of prostitutes. (The mental picture of him allegedly wearing diapers during these visits is nearly as damaging as the actual pictures of Weiner — Vitter’s just lucky his fetish wasn’t photographed.) But yesterday, as calls for Weiner’s exit by Republicans and quite a few Dems were reaching a fever pitch, the GOP hosted a fundraiser for Vitter in a lobbyist’s fancy DC townhouse, video of which Rachel Maddow aired last night. Read more…

My guess: hypocrisy and double-standards for Democrats — even as members of the GOP constantly beat that “family values” drum. Also important: always ask for forgiveness from Jesus, then it’s all good.

Weinergate and the GOP debate

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Yesterday I took a break from blogs, news and politics. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to care about Weinergate anymore, and I was sick of last night’s GOP debate before it even began.

This morning, I will admit to being amused by Andrew Sullivan’s description of Weinergate: “Texting while male.“  That about sums it up, doesn’t it? And that’s probably going to be about the last thing I have to say about it for awhile. I don’t care if he’s going to treatment, who thinks he should resign, or how completely hypocritical GOP politicians are being about this situation when they’ve defended much worse.

Sending a pic of your penis is one thing. But in the past, GOP politicians have defended (or remained silent about) conservative penises wearing both diapers and prostitutes, conservative penises physically engaged in adultery, and conservative penises acting gay when their owners are supposedly anti-gay. We all remember and are keeping score.

And the debate: did I watch? Hell, nyet! Everything you need to know about the Tea Party can be summed up by their ‘favorites’: Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. As for the rest of them… wow.

Think Progress live-blogged this mess. Some highlights:

9:43: Romney says we should bring our troops home from Afghanistan when generals tell him we can hand the country off to the “Taliban military.” Then corrects himself, “Afghan military.”

9:40: Pawlenty finally shows some of the decisiveness that everyone has been waiting for. Unfortunately, it comes in response to the question “Coke or Pepsi?”

9:28: Ron Paul references the “border between Iraq and Afghanistan.” Which does not exist.

9:10: Cain stakes bold stand he would not have any Muslims who want to kill him in his administration.

8:58: Newt Gingrich explains that his description of the Ryan plan as “right-wing social engineering” was only in response to a very narrow question. Some good, some bad in it, he says.

8:58: Ron Paul says Americans need to be weaned off of Social Security and specifically says the elderly and children have become “so dependent on the government.”

8:55 (Think Progress notes): Medicare is fully solvent until 2024. After 2024, the hospital fund will still be able to meet “90 percent” of its commitments.

8:53: Ron Paul claims Medicare isn’t currently solvent. Pawlenty also asserts it’s not solvent.

8:41: Romney won’t admit that he was wrong when he wrote in 2008 that, if the American automakers were rescued by the government, you can “kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”

8:36: Asked to choose between Johnny Cash and Elvis, Bachmann chooses “both.”

8:31: John King asks the hard-hitting question: “Leno or Conan?” Santorum responds, “Probably Leno…I don’t watch either.”

8:31: Pawlenty kisses up to hate radio, declares most of his family of “Reagan Democrats” listens to Rush Limbaugh.

8:30: Bachmann attacks the EPA and says it should be renamed the “job killing organization of America.”

8:30 Pawlenty calls a backpack a “back sack.”

8:26: Like Cain did earlier, Ron Paul endorses a tax holiday that would be a multi-billion dollar giveaway to multinational corporations.

8:17: John King is trying to out Pawlenty for using the term “Obamneycare.” Pawlenty sheepishly refuses to defend the term. Instead, he blames President Obama.

8:14: Bachmann claimed that the Congressional Budget Office said the Affordable Care Act will kill 800,000 jobs. That’s not what the CBO said.

8:11: Bachmann announced, “I filed today my paperwork” and will “very soon be making my formal announcement.” Isn’t that a formal announcement?

Read it all…

VIDEO: Breitbart is ‘mortified’ that the photo he passed around has leaked

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Fox News reported Breitbart claims to be ‘mortified.’ Charles Johnson comments on Breitbart’s phoniness:

Here’s Andrew Breitbart with Opie and Anthony, and actor Vincent D’Onofrio, smirking and laughing as he passes his phone (with the infamous picture of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s penis, that he swore to withhold in order to “spare Rep. Weiner’s family”) around the studio — with a hand-held camera three feet away.

And he claims he didn’t have any idea it would leak. He’s outraged. He’s “mortified.”

It’s pretty weird that Breitbart carries that x-rated pic on his cell phone.

See also: Fact Checking Breitbart’s Statement on the Leaked Photo

It’s the hypocrisy, Stupid: Eric Cantor plays politics with Weiner’s situation

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Only two years ago, Eric Cantor wanted to talk about the direction of our country and JOBS. The important things! What he didn’t want to talk about were John Ensign’s and Mark Sanford’s affairs.

Today Cantor wants Anthony Weiner to resign over online chats and photos. If a Republican’s involved in a scandal — clearly it’s between them and their families and the people of their state. But if it’s a Democrat? Different rules! Annihilate!

Today, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is calling on Anthony Weiner to resign.

But as always with Republicans, it’s instructive to take a look at what they said when their people were in the spotlight. In the cases of Mark Sanford and John Ensign, both of whom had real affairs in the real world involving real sex, and then lied about it and covered it up (not for a few days but for months or years), Eric Cantor sang a very different tune.

CANTOR: Well, listen. I mean, again, I say in the instance of the people in South Carolina and Nevada, it is up to them, and those are the elected individuals by those states.

And again, it’s not about, necessarily, these personalities. The direction of this country — and the challenges that we face are enormous. And we ought to be talking about how to go about creating jobs again. We ought to be talking about the things that matter most to people in this country.

Eric Cantor Calls on Weiner to Resign, But Gave Sanford and Ensign a Pass

Anthony’s Weiner: Moving On

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It’s a big disappointment. A grown, U.S. Representative ‘sexting’ for amusement. Here’s what I think:

At least he didn’t drag his wife into the press conference with him, making her do the usual Tammy Wynette ‘good wife‘ routine like so many other politicians.

He apologized for lying. He apologized to everyone, including *choke* Breitbart. Doesn’t mean I still won’t doubt the next “big” thing Andy B. puts before our hungry, broken media though. A broken clock is only right twice a day. And while we’re on the subject: does anyone recall Breitbart’s public apology to Shirley Sherrod? Right. No. Because unlike Weiner, Breitbart didn’t apologize when he was wrong.

As Ezra Klein said, Weiner was a good congressman last month and he still is this month. Weiner said his regrets go primarily to his wife. He said they aren’t getting a divorce — and “we will weather this.” He indicated they still love each other, and now it becomes a private matter between them and their families. This ridiculous situation he put himself into has nothing to do with his job.

We can certainly reminisce about Vitter’s “thing” for prostitutes and diapers or Craig tapping for action in the men’s restrooms at airports.  Vitter was one of those ‘Christian family values’ politicians –  you know the kind: holier than thou. Craig was anti-gay rights publicly just not so much in private. It’s that kind of hypocrisy that makes people scream — Republicans who want to control everyone else’s private lives with their religion and “morals,” whose own private lives include shit like wearing diapers, prostitutes and same-sex blow jobs in airport restrooms.

Bob Cesca pointed out that if Weiner had been introducing bills against online flirting, then this situation would be almost as bad as a Republican sex scandal. And he’s right. Almost but not quite.

Finally: Yes, Weiner lied. That’s the worst thing for us, looking in from the outside. But he manned-up and publicly apologized for lying and took credit for the dumb things he did.

Just for a second, compare Weiner’s lie to the lies that the Bush Administration fed the media and the American public for months about WMDs in Iraq. Those lies started a war, those lies have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents and the lives and sanity of thousands of our troops, and those lies helped put our country over the edge economically. In a way, their lies have touched all of us personally in one way or another.

Did Bush or Cheney ever offer an apology to the people they lied to  — will they ever? Better yet, would their base ever ask for an apology from them?

The answer to all those questions is no. That’s why I can’t get too worked up about Weiner’s situation. It was all so dumb and he’s making his amends. Moving on.

YFrog security hole: Weiner was framed, and it was easy

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Charles Johnson: Weiner was framed –

ANYONE CAN POST A PIC TO ANY YFROG ACCOUNT: email a picture from a Blackberry (OR using MMS) to the user’s yfrog.com email address, with the word “@subject” in the text. This results in the picture being posted at yfrog — and a tweet being posted at Twitter with a link to the picture.

The full details are at Cannonfire, and it certainly appears convincing. I don’t have a Blackberry, but LGF reader “ElCapitanAmerica” tried the technique described in this post, and reports that it really does work.

This is compelling evidence that Rep. Weiner is being framed. There would have been no need to hack into his accounts because of this security hole.

Once again it’s BLOGGERS, like Cannonfire and LGF, doing journalism and reporting facts, while the mainstream media reports the reactions and pearl clutching of those inside the Beltway.

Jon Stewart on #Weinergate: “No way! No f*cking way!”

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“”No way! No fu–ing way, seriously no way, in real life, in my memory this cat had a lot more Anthony and a lot less Weiner… The only thing that Anthony Weiner and this gentleman appear to have in common is that they both lean hard to the extreme left.” ~ Jon Stewart

Related:

LGF: Why the Right is Attacking Rep. Weiner

It all makes perfect sense: Anthony Weiner’s weiner

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Update * * * * * *

June 6, 2011: Anthony’s Weiner: Moving On— his pics, his apology

* * * * * * * * * * * *

There’s no question that Anthony Weiner would post a racy pic on his YFrog account. What’s there to lose? And anyway, Rep. Weiner has always given off that lewd vibe, hasn’t he?

Secondly, have we ever known Andrew Breitbart, or his excellent website, to steer us wrong? Ever?

Certainly it couldn’t possibly be retaliation for Weiner’s rather popular YouTube rants against Republicans and Breitbart’s “mission.” No way.