I have as much reason to be angry with him as anybody. I went all out in his defense and got a humiliating kick in the teeth for it. But in the scheme of things, what he's done is not the sort of thing that should be the people's business, not in today's world, certainly not among Democrats whose social norms are not so... well, conservative.
Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to march the country to the brink of economic ruin. If a transmitted photograph like this is a greater crime than that to you than what the Republicans are doing right now, you need to straighten out your priorities.
The Republicans have used sex scandals and claims about the deficits and all kinds of other crap to distract from the fact that they are crappy at governing, so they can continue to screw up and do worse to all of us than one Congressman did by texting inappropriate photos
This wasn't merely about Weiner. This was about all of us. This was about beating down a progressive voice, and humiliating the Democrats.
They won't stop trying to humiliate us if we sacrifice Weiner. They'll just find a new target, humiliate him or her, and then move on to the next. They won't stop. And really, since we don't have the kind of culture where people just never do things like this, or at least expect that of folks, we'll be sure to see and hear of this and worse.
This is about the culture war. This is about Republican dominance. Anthony Weiner's foolish behavior gave them the opening, but it wasn't as if they weren't searching for it to begin with.
Certainly Weiner should let things cool down. There are other well-respected leaders in our party who had their pecadillos, but who have gone on to respectable careers. If we give in to this attack, we're not any safer, politically speaking, and we aren't really any more consistent with our own believes about the private nature of sexuality
Let's stop helping the Republicans beat ourselves up. Let's tell Pelosi and the others in the leadership that they have made their statements to look like they were getting tough, but having said those things, they can let things take their own course, and Let Weiner respond according to the wishes of his district.