This Is the Way the Weiner Ends: Not With a Bang But a Whimper:
The grinding media machine has eaten another victim and spit out his splintered bones and shredded viscera. Anthony Weiner resigned yesterday, in a press conference only notable for how stupid and asshole-filled it was, and now the machine knows that, with the assistance of its willing accomplices in Washington, it can pick and choose who to wreck next, like a mad sniper who today feels like firing at joggers in blue shorts.

The kindest reading one can give to the behavior of Democrats, from the President on down, who called for Weiner to resign is that they either know of something way, way worse that's could come out and needed notable distance, or they just fucking hated Weiner and he gave them all the ammo they needed to take him out. Barring the former, there's nothing not despicable in the behavior of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and others.

The Rude Pundit's not gonna recapitulate the entire Weiner affair, except to say that if anyone with a functioning libido living in the 21st century had their sexual text messages and emails revealed, they'd just look like goddamn fools. Here's one from the Rude Pundit, prompted by someone saying how much they love it when he talks dirty and wanted him to get violent because it turns them on: "Yeah, I'm gonna strangle the fuck out of your throat with my cock and jizz on your heart." And that was one of the more politely romantic notes. The point here is not the amount of depth and force that would be required to ejaculate on a major organ during oral sex. No, the point is we all have shit like this. Weiner's was made public. And he's married. And he lied about it.

So what? If you give a shit about who your representative is legally fucking or flirting with, then you don't give a shit about making this a better nation.

If Twitter and Facebook had been around in the late 1990s, if internet media had been developed to the point it is now, Bill Clinton would not have survived. He couldn't have. Every two seconds people would have news updates pop-up on their iPhones about what happens when pussy juice hits tobacco. There would have been a Tumblr called "Bill's Dick" or "It's Not Sex." Let's not even get into the CNNMSNBCFox coverage, which was absurd even then. And the Rude Pundit was someone who, for a good period of time, believed that Clinton should step down. Then it dawned on him that Clinton was right. This was all about destroying him for the sake of destroying him. Goddamn if Clinton wasn't right to stay in office, to outlast his enemies, to wreck them. The fuckers found something, he said. The fuckers will always find something. Republicans weren't ready for Clinton to stand there and take the punches. And goddamn Al Gore for running like a beaten cur into the dark streets at midnight for not wanting Clinton to campaign with him. He allowed the vast right wing conspiracy to succeed where it had failed with Clinton.

But folding is par for the course for Democrats. Sen. Vitter banged hookers. It was a blip of a story and then went away. (And the DC Madam, Deborah Palfrey, who provided Vitter with mommy-acting whores? She was convicted of racketeering and money laundering and killed herself rather than go to prison. The wheels on the justice bus go round and round, motherfuckers.) John Ensign got to stay for a while, and he banged a staff member and bribed her husband. Only Mark Foley got thrown under the bus, and Republicans covered up his criminal behavior for years. (Besides, it gave the GOP a chance to take a stand against a gay guy, so it was all a big plus for the base.)

Weiner sent out some racy texts and photos. And Democrats cowered before the gods of Fox "news" and banished him lest they seem like they were guilty by proxy of the non-crime. Like Shirley Sherrod and others before, they obeyed, they obeyed. Democrats won't fight in this way. They try to stay above the fray. They should have shut down the Senate until Vitter resigned, saying that admitted sex offenders have no place in Congress. They should have talked about nothing but Vitter and hookers any chance they had. But, no. Democrats wanted to talk about "issues." They wanted to "move on." It doesn't work that way.

While so many Democrats said that Weiner was a misdirect, that he needed to get out of the way so that the momentum Democrats developed on Medicare would continue, what they don't get is that Weiner wasn't a distraction until Democrats got sucked into commenting on him. Once again, they played the GOP's game, a game they can't win because they refuse to make their own move. For Republicans, Weiner was the issue. Not Weiner, per se, but the silencing of Democrats, the elimination of them. Once the texts and photos got out, the GOP could have taken a glass houses approach. Instead, they went totally voracious, like starving rats in a morgue.

And the media jacked it to the 24-7 beat. Now that this food source is gone, they will be offered another one soon. And Congress demanded answers where they had failed so many times to even ask a question. And Anthony Weiner, another defender of the middle class, has bitten the dust because he trusted stupid people and thought he could get away with it.

There's not an honorable person in the mix here (except for Weiner's wife, who has remained blissfully private). But, then, honor is hard to come by at all in these warped times.

(Tip of the hat to rude reader AJM for the reminder on Palfrey.)