Some leftwing commentators are pointing out that maybe the biggest scandal isn’t Weiner’s sexual proclivities, it’s his debased comments about the West Bank.
Two nights back, Chris Hayes on MSNBC said that the real scandal is Weiner’s lack of a progressive and legislative record, including– Hayes gets in the jab at the very end of the segment– “saying the West Bank is not occupied.”
Richard Kim at the Nation fills that picture in:
He was one of eighty-two Democrats who voted for the Iraq War, and he continued to support its funding long after its flimsy rationale had evaporated. But it’s on the subject of Israel/Palestine that Weiner truly distinguishes himself. At least twice in public, he has insisted that the West Bank is not occupied, denying a fact that even right-wing former Israeli Prime Minister and settler movement architect Ariel Sharon admitted a decade ago (for a complete account and video of Weiner’s statements, see Ali Gharib’s report for The Daily Beast). He has also claimed that there is no Israeli military presence in the West Bank, which would be news to the IDF soldiers stationed there. As Stephen Zunes points out, Weiner’s denial fits squarely in a disturbing pattern of squelching criticism of the Israeli state and of making patently untrue statements to do so, including claiming that the United States recognizes the PLO as a “terrorist organization” twenty years after it ceased using that designation. These statements reveal Weiner to be a knowing liar or a willfully ignorant ideologue, either of which should disqualify him from holding public office.
Oh and last week Weiner told Alex Kane that Israel is an oasis surrounded by terrorist states.
And Max Blumenthal reported here that Weiner spoke at a 1993 rally for Israel at which some of those participating called for Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Some progressive!
Didn’t Weiner tell that Israel is part of an oasis made of terrorist states: “a democracy in an oasis of terrorist states and terrorist organizations,”
Also, if Weiner indeed claimed that “Israel has no military presence in the West Bank” that is definitely idiotic and questionably pro-Israel.
Also, even if you merely have an ambition to be a florist or an owner of a car repair shop it would be wise to conduct anonymous chat on racy topics in such a way that the anonymity would be preserved. The guy is an idiot that should be kept away from any type of executive position. Congress or City Council should be perfect places for him — his intelligence could well be above average in those places.
I watched that segment. Hayes could not have have a discussion about this with his panel – He only inserted it into a 3 second sound bite at the very end prior to the commercial break. And that guy Ryan Grim seemed to know what was up with things as they laughed about Weiner and his oddball perversions.
Even it 2013 on one of the most liberal political evening shows, no one may speak of the only ‘ally in the middle east’ or Weiner’s disgusting support for it. I think when the shit hits the fan, Israel doesn’t have any real support and the more pundits that criticize the state, the quicker that vacuous support will go out the window.
Weiner gets to coddle right wing Zionists in Brooklyn, but he has the alternate left wing agenda that he likes to play to the left. It’s no wonder this guy is soo screwed-up. He’s living in a fractured realm of two separate personalities. I think that is why he acts like this recent scandal is a sort of hum-drum business-as-usual scandal. But he can’t seem to accept that his online perversions are really strange and will cause the normal voting public to question his ethics and discipline.
I’ll be honest. There’s a part of me that wants to see Wiener become mayor just because NYC and America deserve him so much.
And who else could follow Bloomberg except for Mr. Penis?
Speaking of MSNBC anyone else noted Peter Beinart was saying getting Weiner to quit the race was anti-democratic? He was on multiple panels on this topic on MSNBC.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/13/anthony-weiner-s-holier-than-thou-critics-should-show-humility-compassion.html