My take-away from Weinergate

Now that a day has passed and the Twitterverse is beginning to suffer from an acute case of weiner-withdrawl, I would like to reflect on the past 10 days and talk about what I have taken away from this latest episode of viral humiliation.

First, the press conference in New York City was as surreal as it gets. I was at work trying to find an internet connection to watch the presser at 4pm and Twitter starts buzzing with "I don't believe it, @AndrewBreitbart is on stage taking questions." Other than the fact that the tweets were coming from respected journalists at ABC News (@RickKlein and @JakeTapper), I wouldn't have believed it.

Breitbart was there (coincidentally, according to him) and was getting bombarded with questions, so he stepped up on the podium at the invitation of several of the reporters so that they could hear him better. His jist was "Where do I go to get my reputation back?" Unfortunately for the Congressman, he was fashionably late allowing Mr. Breitbart to say his piece and then some, live, in front of many people that have only heard of him through the filter of others (and heard badly of him I would venture to guess.)

Eventually Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) came to the podium looking very solemn and contrite. His statement of admission and then apology for what he had done and for whom he had hurt was quick and to the point. He admitted that he had acted 'irresponsibly' by posting lewd pictures of himself and carrying on an 'inappropriate' on-line relationship with at least six women.

What he also apologized for was lying to the press, the public and his family. Herein lies a lesson that we ALL should sear into our conscience.

Remember the LIES.

As his admissions were rolling off of his tongue, I kept thinking about those interviews he gave to the five journalists he invited into his Congressional Office (key point for the Ethics Investigation), the interview he gave to a fawning Rachel Maddow, the follow-up tweets, his indignation, his brash put-down of a journalist when he asked the reporter "Is that a fair question to ask?" I even thought about the CBS-2 reporter from his home district whom the Capitol Police reminded that if she was asked to leave his office and she didn't, she could be arrested.

Notice how convincing Mr. Weiner was in all of those cases. Look at the fire in his eyes. See the veins in his neck pop out. Hear his voice dripping with that righteous New York indignation that you would even think to question his veracity. He is SO convincing.

I have never liked the man, thinking him a bully... a sort of Jewish chihuahua. Always barking and getting in your face. You just want him to go away or go bother someone else.

How it all started.

I saw the original tweet from @AndrewBreitbart right after he posted it Friday night. I originally thought that someone may have figured out Weiner's Twitter password, but not that they hacked his computer. Vastly different things. As time went on, I listened to his non-denial denials and I thought he was guilty of something. I just wasn't sure of what. Then over the weekend I tweeted this:


He had left to be on Rachel Maddow's show Friday night and then had a regular tweet when he got back home from the MSNBC studios, then a few minutes later the Tweet Heard 'Round The World was sent. As he said at the press conference, he accidentally sent a regular tweet, not a DM and then he panicked.

(For those of you who do not use Twitter, if the first letter of your message is a D followed by an address, then if that person follows you (meaning they subscribe to your messages), they will get a private message from you that no one else can see.)

Back to the LIES.

The more this played out, the more I watched how convincing he was and how well he was pitching his story to whomever would choose to believe him.

And then, during the presser, it really, really struck home:

YOU CANNOT BELIEVE A WORD THAT PROFESSIONALS LIKE HIM SAY UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO BELIEVE.

Go back and look at the rants he has given in the past year over health care, the budget, Glenn Beck's advertising sponsor Goldline, or 9-11 payouts to first responders. Now, look at his press interviews on Wednesday. Notice the similarity? The believability? The arrogance? The chutzpah?

I believe that you will never be able to listen to anything he says with that pseudo-conviction and believe him, because you know that he can sound convincingly sincere when he isn't. If you can't believe him, can his colleagues in Congress?

And that, my friends, is why he needs to resign. He has zero credibility.


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