ANTHONY WEINER

The media circus surrounding Anthony Weiner and Twittergate came to an end this afternoon when Weiner held a press conference in an attempt to resign from Congress with a shred of dignity and expression of remorse.

He was forced to shout like a barker from his podium as obscene shouting roared through the presser, many of the comments lewd and cruel.

No doubt, Weiner screwed up. What he did was not only stupid, but close to insane. He clearly has a mental problem but who cares. His fellow Democrats certainly had no sympathy for the long-serving Representative whose constituents, despite Weiner's dalliances, were sticking with him....even if he was acting like a somewhat deranged man.

And what of the press? They fed this story with bizarre glee. Young Luke Russert, this his first national story, did what every cub reporter does: Went after his subject, knowing that if he could get Weiner to resign his career would be off and running. Sleazy, sleazy, sleazy.

Perhaps the lowest point in this painful all too human episode was when the Democratic President of the United States, Barack Obama, weighed in on this tortured affair. Was it necessary for the president to insert himself in this mess? I think not. It used to be that presidents stayed above the sordid fray. That was when the Office of the Presidency had dignity.

As for the Republicans: They rode this story like a fine circus performer. They shut up when the Dems didn't, and piled on when the Dems did not. In the wake of the press conference they continued to pile on, even after Weiner bowed to the pressure and resigned his longstanding job.

No one comes out of this story looking good. In many ways the story is much bigger than Anthony Weiner. It is a story that reflects America's morally corrupt society. The image it reflects is not a pretty picture.

Perhaps a moment of personal reflection would benefit us all.

A WARNING TO REPUBLICANS

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas looks like Pollyanna
compared to the vitriolic voice that for too long has been the Republican Party. Schoolyard bullies and thugs is what the GOP has come to represent. They bludgeon, they club, they bash, they beat, not afraid to take down any Democrat who might get in the way of their agenda. They are indeed, a belligerent lot.

The Comanche that are the Republican Party these days bring out their Winchesters for sport, as they seek to kill Medicare as we know it, cut unemployment benefits, stop Medicaid for children; their politics rests on the backs of the poor. Singing tunes with lyrics like "Armageddon," "showdown," Tea Party Express spokesperson, Amy Kremer, has been yodeling fiscal control. Control? The obese, intransigent Kremer talking about "control" seemes disingenuous considering the body from which this tune is being sung. No wonder they are against gun control; Republicans are out of control.

When not attacking programs for the poor, the GOP sets its sights on people. Their current target is new Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. No doubt, the nubile chairwoman has left herself vulnerable to the Right’s attacks. Nevertheless, some of the verbal firepower launched at Wasserman Shultz seems exponentially over-the-top, and for good reason. Wasserman Schultz represents the Jewish state of Florida. Obama has a Jewish problem thanks to his stupid handling of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace talks. Wasserman Schultz is Obama’s bridge to the Jewish community in Florida where every vote counts. While mean, Republicans aren’t dumb. They want Wasserman Schultz out, and if not out, dismembered — Jeffrey Dahmer politics.

In 1980 it was Republican Lee Atwater who started the Comanche Politics cannonball rolling. South Carolina State Senator Tom Turnipseed was in a bitter contest against Republican incumbent Floyd Spence. Atwater aimed his guns at Turnipseed employing false push polls, which linked Turnipseed to the NAACP. Then he shot the bullet across the bow that started the vitriol war, announcing that Turnipseed had been "hooked up to jumper cables" as a teen undergoing treatment for depression. Needless to say Turnipseed lost, but Lee Atwater’s mean machine won, and became the stuff of which Republican legends are made.

I was thinking about all of this the other day when I read a report that Republicans are furious with possible GOP presidential candidate, former Ambassador to China under Barack Obama, Jon Huntsman. Huntsman is attempting to do something that Republicans haven’t done since Atwater’s days: Run a campaign like a statesman should. Now there’s a novel idea. What? Not obliterate the competition with smear tactics but run on the issues? Similarly, the White House appears to have joined into a Non-Aggression pact with Huntsman. But Republicans are firing away at Huntsman nonetheless, calling his strategy “stupid,” and Huntsman a “friggin’ loser…”

…proving that Republicans have yet to learn the final lesson of Lee Atwater who died of a brain tumor at 40. “My illness,” Atwater said, “helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.”

My Republican friends: It is never too late to learn.