Posts Tagged ‘Anthony Weiner’

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington considers Anthony Weiner OK: We see lying politicians all the time

June 9, 2011

If you’re a Democrat and you want an ethics pass, go see Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Today she discussed the Anthony Weiner mess with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. Her analysis:

“It’s hard to see what the [House] Ethics Committee would hang its hat on here to say that this conduct would violate the ethics rules. Others have said maybe it’s the lying. What! So no politician has ever lied to us before? That’s the kind of thing we see all the time. So he did behave discreditably (!!) but I don’t think it’s enough for a full fledged ethics censure. David Vitter is still there.”

I wonder what kind of behavior Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington would consider irresponsible or unethical.

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Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Media | 1 Comment »

Congressman Weiner has a history of exaggerations and misstatements, says PolitiFact.com:

June 9, 2011

I rely a lot on PolitiFact.com, a blog of the St. Petersburg Times, to check the truthfulness of public figures. Today they reviewed all their ratings of Anthony Weiner, It’s a sad record, even before the plethora of lies he spewed over the past week. It’s much worse than I remembered. He was only rated four times, and the highest rating he ever got was “half true.”

I had admired him for his intensity, especially for his raging plea for medical care for the 9/11 first responders, who had been abandoned by Republicans in the House. He won that battle, but I should have been more critical of him. I shoulda checked PolitiFact.com

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Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) admits all, apologizes to everybody, including Andrew Breitbart

June 6, 2011

At a circus of a press conference, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) admitted tweeting a photo of his brief-covered crotch to a 21-year old college student, then panicking and lying to cover it up. What ethics rule did Weiner break?

The Golden Rule, for one. He hurt a lot of people, starting with his wife, his loyal Congressional staff, the people who believed in him, and apparently, even Andrew Breitbart, the scurrilous right wing defamer and doctorer of videos.

The nearly universal rule against lying, for another. If we lie to each other society crumbles.

The rule that says do what’s expected of you. The voters who sent Weiner to Congress expected –reasonably—different of him.

In addition to the ethics violations Weiner violated the First Law of Washington Scandal: the cover-up is worse than the crime.  In this respect he is forcing his admirers (including me, as of last week) to question his sanity: What in the world was he thinking when he made up those pathetically lame, unbelievable lies. Nobody, no matter their politics, not even Chris Mathews, believed he was telling the truth.

To Weiner’s credit, and there’s not much in this to his credit, he set the standard for apologizing. No “I’m sorry if you thought…” or “I was under the influence of a new allergy prescription,” or (more…)

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Congressman says Jews reject American principles

January 25, 2011

 

Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-FL), in an interview with Shalomshow TV, calmly stated that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), one of two Jews in congress, represents “the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”

If it’s not clear why West attacked Weiner, this quote from a campaign town meeting, may help explain:

“We already have a 5th column that is already infiltrating into our colleges, into our universities, into our high schools, into our religious aspect, our cultural aspect, our financial, our political systems in this country. And that enemy represents something called Judaism, and Judaism is a totalitarian theocratic political ideology, it is not a religion. It has not been a religion since 622 AD, and we need to have individuals that stand up and say that.”

Actually, EthicsBob is pulling your leg. Obviously. It would be unacceptable to openly attack Jews like that. Rep. West was really attacking Islam: to read West’s real statements substitute Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Muslims, and Islam for Weiner, Jews, and Judaism, respectively, and you’ll have the congressman’s exact words. Glad he wasn’t attacking Jews. That would have made people mad.

Thanks to IslamophobiaToday.com for calling this to our attention. The website does a great public service by its work exposing hatred against American Muslims.

 

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Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Religion, Tolerance | 3 Comments »