[EL] Congressman Weiner

[Thomas J. Cares]

I definitely agree with Rob and Paul. I hope he survives this and that it
sets a new standard of how we judge policymakers - by their policy-making.

I'm not saying personal indiscretions shouldn't matter at all, but it should
be more like 5-10%, when it seems like 90-95%. How many pieces of
legislation get this much attention per decade? maybe the Bush tax cuts, the
Iraq War, maybe the Patriot Act, TARP, the Stimulus, maybe the auto industry
bail out, maybe cap and trade proposals (though probably not), Obama's
health care overhaul... not many.

It's a little bizarre that this is the number one thing people resign over.
Voting to authorize the Iraq War, without due diligence, is a more worthy
thing to resign over. The consequences of California's energy deregulation
that led to the 2000/2001 electricity crisis would be a more worthy thing
for a California Legislator to resign over than Mike Duvall's bragging about
an affair with a lobbyist.

Moreover, as citizens, we accept these entertaining pseudo-political stories
more and more as substitutes for important civic news. It's come that this
is what we think is important when it comes to composing our Republic, and
our Republic does not seem the better for it.


On the ethics issue, the biggest question in my mind is whether it may have
been a bona fide violation to have his congressional staff spend time
conveying his lie that his twitter account had been hacked. Mostly, I think
Democrats feel the need to call for an investigation to save face.


Thomas J. Cares
Tom at TomCares.com
202-64-CARES
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