<p>“What I find puzzling is why some supported Vitter, but are against Weiner. The only difference I saw was the pictures made it more explosive. Although NYMomof2 had a good point - Weiner doesn’t appear to be very popular among his colleagues.”</p>
<p>It is always, always…guy from my side does this action, no big deal, it doesn’t affect his work. Guy from your side does the same thing, oh my GOD, how awful! Doesn’t matter which side we’re talking about. We can be completely forgiving based on our biases. And I agree, having pictures does make all the difference. Listening to someone concocting elaborate lies and blaming others for his actions is pretty awful too.</p>
<p>The media is always looking for something edgy, with a sensationalism element. The stories involving prostitutes, illegitimate kids, etc. were hitting the news so often that this element is no longer there. The Weinergate offered a new twist (oooh, sex via Twitter!), and that’s why, IMO, the media pounced on it. The next politician sending pictures of his underpants via social media channels can breathe easier - his actions will get less news coverage.</p>
<p>Weiner also has been working hard lately to call attention to Clarence Thomas’s various lies, improprieties, and conflicts of interest. Maybe there should be a thread called “Here’s Who REALLY needs to resign” about Thomas…</p>
<p>I, however, do NOT want to know about any kind of diaper sex, or twittered 46 year old ***** pictures, or cigar sex, or any of this stuff.</p>
<p>I do want to know how someone votes. I don’t care about Weiner’s weiner, the congressional member, so to speak :eek: , will have to hope his constituency feels differently than I do.</p>
<p>And thank you Hayden for pointing out that rape is not sex. Maybe we should write that one more time: “rape is not sex.” </p>
<p>Nor is sending somebody an unsolicited picture of your weiner, which could be classified as cyberflashing, imho.</p>
<p>And, it does matter, because these people make the laws, and the men on both side of the aisle, in politics and the media, still treat women like objects. At least Weiner was objectifying himself, as well.</p>
<p>Good point - it’s virtuallly always women who are objectified.</p>
<p>(see: Miss America -. “Ain’t she sweet? Makin’ profit off her meat. Beauty sells, she’s told, so she’s out pluggin’ it. Ain’t she sweet?” - and a multitude of other abominations, the beauty industry, and on and on)</p>
<p>Time for equal-opportunity objectification??</p>
<p>“Schmaltz, perhaps Louisiana was french 200 years ago, but it is not now.”</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re right…there’s no lingering French influence in Louisiana, nor do they have a history of tolerating outrageously sleazy politicians.</p>
<p>There seems to be 3 schools of thought at work on this thread:</p>
<p>(1) If a male thinks Weiner should resign, he’s a knee-jerk double-standard hack for the other side of the aisle.</p>
<p>(2) If a male thinks Weiner should stay, he’s a misogynist who can’t comprehend how objectifying Weiner’s actions were.</p>
<p>(3) If a female writes anything, she’s automatically brilliant, even if what she writes are empty, irrelevant points like “It’s not Mrs. Weiner, it’s…”</p>
<p>Not at all, busdriver. I’m being consistent - I thought both of them were sleazy and I think both should resign. What I’m trying to understand is why one has wall to wall press, while the other did not. I’m thinking it’s the salacious pictures, and maybe the personality. I am not necessarily seeing this as a political differentiator at all. </p>
<p>But perhaps you could help by looking at this from the other side. Why was there so little coverage of Vitter? Why did his party support him so completely, with no calls to resign? In other words, I’m curious about the difference, and I would be regardless of which party they’re from. This is not a political issue, it’s a social/media issue. Keep in mind that most people charge the press with being liberal, yet here we see the media covering Weiner constantly, while Vitter not so much. So there you see the difference too. So there must be some underlying reason, which I’m curious about.</p>
<p>Weiner is now saying that he can’t quit because he’s not qualified to do any other job. He’s not an atty…he has a BA degree from a SUNY that won’t really get him similarly important work.</p>
<p>Is he really saying that? Geez! It’s like saying, “I’m not qualified for the real world, so put me in the congress.”</p>
<p>Egad.</p>
<p>Hayden-- My impression, and I’m an independent, so no dog in this fight, is that the reason the press is all over this guy is because he did some sort of world-wide interview tour where he talked to all of these press guys and said he didn’t do it, and then, it turned out that he did. They gave him all sorts of air time because he asked for it, and then, now that he wants it to go away, they are on it. Who knows.</p>