I avoided doing anything on the recent Anthony Weiner Twitter scandal basically for its entirety. There was enough nonmentary throughout the media that I didn’t figure there was any sense in me adding to it unless I happened to come up with a perspective that was unique, or at least not being explored very much.
In my opinion, the important thing here isn’t what Weiner was accused of in the first place–it’s that he lied about it. That’s the part of this story that’s bigger than one man. It’s the latest incident illustrating how some members of Congress and other governmental institutions think they can be flagrantly dishonest to their constituents and suffer no consequences for it.
What baffles me is that people who can howl for blood and run a person out of office over lies about his or her inconsequential fetishes and affairs couldn’t get so worked up about having the nation plunged into economic disaster and hundreds of thousands of lives pointlessly extinguished by a war based on fabricated threats. I’m sure many of those who called for Anthony Weiner’s resignation (or demanded such from President Clinton when he was embroiled in his own scandal) are the same ones who defended the lies and treason of the Bush Administration, and probably do so to this day without any awareness of the irony.
When I mentioned this to a friend on Thursday, shortly after hearing about the Congressman’s resignation, he said, “Well, it’s too late to impeach Bush and his cronies now.” That may be so, but as long as they live it won’t be too late to punish big liars like them, both for the purpose of justice, and to send a message to other big liars, and smaller liars like Anthony Weiner: When you speak to the public, speak the truth, especially when you’re working at the public’s behest.
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