Weiner's a hot dog

My old first sergeant used to call it "stepping on your dick," which meant you'd made a terrible mistake.

Representative Anthony Weiner (D-New York) is another in a line of politicians of national importance who has stepped on his dick. In this case his weiner (ho-ho, no one can resist that joke even if it's too obvious).

For a week or more he claimed someone had "hacked into" his Twitter account and hijacked the picture of a man filling out his underwear.

He played coy, not admitting originally it was a picture of himself. Then the story, which wouldn't go away, caused him to have to make some sort of official public statement. It came down in a press conference that yeah, it was him. He'd intended to send it to a woman who was not his wife, but sent it out as a mass mailing instead.


Oops.

Can you imagine how he felt when he realized what he'd done? Can you imagine the shock? I can because in my own way I've done dumb stuff like that; I've sent an e-mail or two meant for one person to another by mistake. It was very embarrassing. But I'm not a politician. I'm not in a position of public trust and responsibility.

Weiner has a new wife (married last summer by--of all people--President Bill Clinton, and there's some irony there), and yet is trading sexy tweets with chicks not his wife. Oh yeah...news out today: Weiner's new wife is pregnant.

There is some justice in all this. The playboy found out that playing can have a price. Weiner isn't the first congressman from New York this year to end up in trouble over electronic transmissions of pictures. Representative Chris Lee, a Republican, screwed up. As soon as his bare-chested picture came out he resigned. You can see the picture here. The Democrats made a big deal of it but now they have their own fellow embarrassing them.

The calls are out from his own party for Weiner to resign.

The technology is still new enough that people play games with it, thinking they're getting away with something. They find out that anything sent out over the internet can suddenly be public property. I wonder how many other public figures are tonight sweating bucketloads, worrying about their own indiscretions just waiting to catch up to them?

I also notice that there is a pattern with public officials caught in these situations. They get up before the public, say their mea culpas, and tell everyone they apologize for "the hurt they've caused." There's no reason to believe that much of that isn't just earwash. If the guy hadn't been caught he'd have been doing it right now. He wouldn't be worrying about causing hurt, because he'd be thinking no one would ever know.

Even though Weiner was finally frank, he's still a hot dog. The media has put mustard and chopped onions on him, slapped him in a bun and eaten him up. His career is cooked.

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