[EL] Congressman Weiner

[Tom Matzzie]

That would be a question for the Congress to decide. "Vulnerability to
blackmail" is outside the scope of the law. Indeed, we usually call
those persons victims of crime. Were this not a politician who lied to
cover-up his Twitter dalliances we might be more concerned.

Weiner's actions were reckless, distasteful, idiotic and perhaps
unethical. But he is already in the throes of a reckoning. Surely
there will be an investigation, etc..

My concern is that somebody is out there saying they have "dirty
pictures" of a member of Congress and implying (through interstate
communications and in the State of New York) that they would release
them if offended. That smacks of extortion.

(My Apologies if you received this message twice. There was a list
glitch in my posting)



On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Eric Lycan
<Eric.Lycan at steptoe-johnson.com> wrote:
> That is an interesting question.  It could also, however, for part of the rationale for calling for Weiner's resignation and/or an ethics inquiry.  To engage in conduct that allows him to be blackmailed could, as you point out, compromise his official duties as a Congressman.  It would certainly be grounds for revoking the security clearance of a non-elected official.  The NY voters can always re-elect him, of course, but it might support an ethics charge and certainly would give one a valid reason to call for him to resign.
>
>
> D. Eric Lycan
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Tom Matzzie
> Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 6:35 PM
> To: Thomas J. Cares
> Cc: Election Law
> Subject: Re: [EL] Congressman Weiner
>
> Would anybody care to evaluate Mr. Breitbart's statements that he is holding "x-rated" material regarding Congressman Weiner that he may choose to release at some future date should Mr. Weiner offend Mr.
> Breitbart? Would official acts by Congressman Weiner offend Mr.
> Breitbart, including votes in the U.S. House? Would inquires to agencies for which Mr. Weiner conducts oversight offend Mr. Breitbart?
>
> It would seem that Mr. Weiner is caught in a protection racket. If the photo is released, it may be journalism and protected speech. If it is not released, it smacks of extortion. And done through the media, that is an interstate communication. Any thoughts?
>
> While humbled, Mr. Weiner is still a member of Congress and while he has no immunity from criticism, he is afforded protection from extortion.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 3:53 PM, Thomas J. Cares <Tom at tomcares.com> wrote:
>> 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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