Vitter's original actions were much worse. But his handling of the scandal when it became public was much better. Can you wrap your head around that? No, I don't suppose you can.
That's such a silly way to evaluate the merits of a scandal. PR people, however, are pleased to see that you're a fan of their ability to spin an issue. Who cares about the underlying merits, we only care about how the PR is handled.
How deep.
This is a recurring problem with you, TW. I never demanded Weiner's resignation.
This is you trying to play both sides. You either think Weiner is still qualified for office or you don't. If you were his constituent, would you want him to serve out his term?
If you're of the opinion that voters should decide whether he's in office or not, then you oppose the resignation.
No, TW. That's not my argument at all. Again, you just can't let go of the strawmen, can you?
So Palin's lack of credibility in one area of her life, lying openly and repeatedly to the public (death panels) in a way as flagrant as Weiner, has no bearing on other aspects of her life, but Weiner's lying does. Why?
Why does Weiner being misleading about his private life give you an indication about how he handles his professional life, but Sarah Palin flagrantly lying in her public life give no indication of how she handles her private life?
I'm asking you to explain the asymmetry. So far you've just weakly tried to argue that it was Weiner's lying, and not his behavior, that was at issue, but, of course, politicians lying is a fairly common occurrence. You've said yourself that not all lies are credibility destroying, but you seem to only deploy that dichotomy in a self-serving manner within the context of this argument.
Interestingly, you seem to accept people lying to you about matters important to the public, but they can't lie about how they get their rocks off. This seems to be the exact opposite of the way a sane society would operate.
Lying to the public makes her uncredible. You tell me whether or not that's got anything to do with her role as a mother, but you sure as hell haven't made any case to that effect.
I don't think it has anything to do with her ability to be a mother, just like I don't think Weiner's behavior has anything to do with his ability to be a Congressman.
Non-overlapping magisteria.
I never made any such claim. Nor have I claimed that Weiner is unfit for office because he's a pervert.
But the pattern of straw continues.
No, you're deploying this insanely weak notion that the mere fact he lied to cover up very private matters that the press was harassing him about reflects on his ability to serve in Congress.
People lying about important matters, like, say, every Republican member of Congress repeating the "death panel" nonsense, isn't that big of a deal.
What strange values you have.
Actually, yes, it does. He betrayed his fellow democrats by getting them to support a lie. He lost their confidence. The importance of such confidence in fulfilling his duties should be obvious. Yet it isn't to you.
His constituents trust him, and I doubt very seriously that the Democrats cared much about whether he was reliable as a COngressman. They, as usual, were terrified about a non-issue because they were cowards. Congressional democrats have established a long history of being total wimps on these issues.
I don't buy their excuses. Weiner's constituents wanted him to stay, it's their choice in a Democracy.
But then, you refused to see the obvious when Weiner was still lying, and now you refuse to see that the lying mattered. So why break a streak?
This is a good bit of evidence that you have little confidence in the argument you're making. Trying to gloat about something this dumb, as if trying to remind yourself that you were right once, does not exactly come off as all that impressive.
As I said from the begging, I assumed Weiner wasn't lying because 1) Breitbart and 2) the behavior was galactically stupid. At no point did I ever rely on personal trust in Weiner. That sort of personal trust is idiotic, whether you're proven right or wrong.
