The Little Weiner That Could?!

In January of 1990 Washington D.C Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for cocaine possession. According  to sources, Barry and a female companion were smoking crack in a hotel room. He was charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of misdemeanor drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine. Barry was convicted of only one of the fourteen charges. The jury failed to come to a decision on the remaining charges, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. Barry was sentenced to 6 months in prison in October of that year.

As if this wasn't unsettling enough, he then went on to win a Counsil seat in 1992, and was elected mayor of Washington DC again in 1994.

Fast forward to January 1998, former White House intern Monica Lewinski came forward with allegations that she had a affair with then President Bill Clinton. Clinton adamantly denied the allegations. But the evidence, which included taped conversations about the affair, and a semen stained dress which Lewinski  had kept as a "keep sake", became too much for Clinton to overcome. He then recanted his claim of innocence, and sought to re-define the term "sexual-relations"  in the process. 

William Jefferson Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by a divided House of Representatives, which recommended virtually along party lines that the Senate remove the nation's 42d President from office.

A few hours after the vote, Mr. Clinton, surrounded by Democrats, walked onto the South Lawn of the White House, his wife, Hillary, on his arm, to pre-empt calls for his resignation. The man who in better days had debated where he would stand in the pantheon of American Presidents said he would stay in office and vowed ''to go on from here to rise above the rancor, to overcome the pain and division, to be a repairer of the breach.'' 

Mr. Clinton became only the second President in history to be impeached, in a stunning day that also brought the resignation of the incoming Speaker of the House, Robert L. Livingston.

Clinton not only completed his 2nd term in office. But he was also able to cement his legacy as arguably one of the best Presidents in US history.

So you may ask. What do former DC Mayor Marion Barry, and former President Bill Clinton have in common? Both men overcame seemingly insurmountable, career ending scandals, and were unapologetic about the decision to continue their political careers. 

Both scandals set a president and set the "standard", for a new kind of politician. The kind of a shameless public figure who expects the public to embrace his very public flaws. Both Barry and Clinton have given politicians who have become mired in scandal. But their ability to bounce back has given other politicians the distinct impression that they may be able to rise from the ashes of disgrace, and ascend to prominence once more. The latest example is former Congressman and mayoral hopeful Anthony Wiener.As predicted by Wiener himself, the sex scandal that led to his 2011 resignation from Congress would become an issue during his mayoral campaign. And a series of lewd texts and photos revealed Tuesday has forced Wiener to ask New Yorkers to "give him another chance."

Wiener's wife: "I love him, I have forgiven him"
In 2011, Weiner accidentally tweeted photos of his crotch to his Twitter followers, but claimed he'd been hacked.
He'd mistakenly sent a lewd message to his followers that was intended to be private. He ultimately admitted to having "inappropriate" online relationships with several women and resigned that June.

"I'm surprised more things hadn't come out sooner," Weiner said Tuesday. "Things aren't that much different than they were yesterday."
"I said there were more things out there," he continued. "We went through this process and worked through some of these challenges and we put it behind us." 

Wiener's Internet nom de plume or pen name was........wait for it,........Carlos Danger! I guess all of the good alias's were taken by the internet other weirdos.

In May, he announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, embarking not only on a political campaign but also an apology tour.

Recent polls have shown support among NYC Democrats for his bid, though his former congressional colleagues have either endorsed other candidates or stayed silent.

The fact that Wiener has the gall to ask the public to disregard his juvenile behavior because his admission precluded these latest revelations is an insult in and of itself. The sad part is the fact that Wiener may actually be elected.

But the fact remains that any grown man who engages in such reckless, pre-pubescent behavior has issues to say the least, and the fact that he refuses to withdraw from the race for Mayor of New York is mind boggling. The mayor of freak town, maybe. But the mayor of New York? The big apple, or any city for that matter, deserves so much better than a mayor who insists on, and is not genuinely apologetic about tweeting his private parts into cyber space.

PR