Text maybe. No pics though. Anyone with an iota of tech savvy would know not to let jpgs get loose. New Yorkers deserve better.

my issue is less the yucky sex stuff sent to woman who contacted him because they admired him politically, but the fact when initially caught he lied lied lied lied lied.....
"i was hacked"
dudes full of shit.

Anthony is one of America's most honest politicians.

Honest because he is openly heterosexual.

He does what an adult male heterosexual does.

If that bothers you, then get off my sexuality, haters.

But local hero Dori Monson said it made Penthouse forum look like Highlights for Children! Filthiest stuff he's ever read, he says.

I have no objection to sexy sexy texts. I do it. So does pretty much everyone. My objection is that how and with whom he texts shows a narcissistic sociopathic tendency that I find all too common among politicians. It shows that he has bad judgment, and little self-restraint.

I'm not asking him not to have a sexuality, or even refrain from sexting. But it would be nice could pick appropriate targets for his wiener pics, and for bonus points, get his wife's permission.

Conclusion: fairly typical politician, not necessarily a terrible person, but with an extra strong streak of recklessness, poor impulse control and narcism. Not my favorite qualities in people I want to elect.

As a personal matter, I don't care that Weiner sexted again. That's between him and his wife.

This does, however, destroy my confidence in his judgment as an elected official. He scandalized himself and his family and self destructed, publicly professed that he was remorseful and changed, while still doing what got him in trouble in the first place.

I'd feel the same way whether if the issue was him losing his temper and raging on people or getting caught lying on the record. The man is self destructive, a distraction and disgrace to the party, and more trouble than he's worth. Surely, a better candidate and more reliable elected can be found.

@3: I'm an adult male heterosexual. I would never go behind my woman's back to try and get with someone else.
See, that is because I have some raising and a healthy dash of class.

What @5 and @6 said.

P.S. of the 38,185 pictures on my website, one of them is of my left nut. Fortunately I have no political aspirations.

@4 You mean Dori who sits on the toilet to pee because his wife makes him? Seriously, he had that topic on his show.

Such logical earnestness. I think good ol nice guy commenter 'lark' has rubbed off on #5 and #6.
Score 1 for Slog!

Can Amanda vote in NYC? If you are a commenter here, can you vote in NYC? Unless you can, your opinion here isn't worth jack shit.

"Weiner has admitted that the chats, published on Facebook and Formspring, sometimes under the alias “Carlos Danger,” are his."

LOL! She's wrong about one thing, its not boring.

@12

Are you implying that Carlos Danger is an unboring LOL name?
Probably my second top reason for no longer reading posts by Ansel Herz is because his name is... Whatever, I'm kind of at a point where I don't know what is boring and what isn't.

Man that some spin there. Pat yourself on the back Ms Hess.

But the mayor of the largest city in the country shouldn't be ordinary. He should be better than that. I don't give a shit how durrrrty the pics are, I care about the terrible judgement he showed in tweeting them to some girl not his wife. It makes him look like a compulsive moron, not a sex pervert.

I don't care what pervy pics he's got on his hard drive. I do care that he can't figure out how to keep them out of the fucking news.

And no, I haven't, in fact, sexted anyone with a picture of my penis, and if I had it certainly wouldn't be some 20-year-old chickie when I've got a wife at home, and if it was, and I got caught, I wouldn't fucking DO IT AGAIN A YEAR LATER.

Weiner's character flaw is not about sex. It's about being a jackass.

@2: Unless sexting became illegal when I wasn't looking, I couldn't care less about Wiener's antics. And who wouldn't lie when asked an invasive question about shit that's nobody else's business, fuck the politics behind it? And unless his campaign is built around the promise of internet chastity. If being a shitty spouse affected competence on the job, I suspect this and every other country in the world would not be nearly as productive or efficient.

@15: The "new" pictures are from after the initial scandal broke, when he assumed his political career was over, not now.

@16: "And unless his campaign is built around the promise of internet chastity, his activity is irrelevant to me and should be to others." (I meant to say)

He's a weasel who says what he thinks you want to hear, or what he thinks he can get away with.

That, and his targets were not his equals in power, nor fully informed with eyes open, nor consenting.

And, finally. Dumb. So dumb.

@18, I repeat, it's not about the sexy pics, it's about the terrible judgement. The guy's an asshole not for getting sexy but for letting it get out into the world.

I dunno...

There are no naked pictures of me on the internet.

I will never knowingly vote for anyone who spells come "cum."

Doesn't matter. Paul Wolfowitz was Head of the World Bank, not some measly US congressman, and he promoted that African chick after fucking her behind his wife's back, all the while helping start a nice expensive deadly war in Iraq. He was tickled on the wrist, and sitting quite pretty these days. When you serve a higher purpose like Wiener and Wolfowitz, morals are shit. Learn from the experts. Ahem, didn't mean to sermonize, let's talk about those evil Koch Brothers, and how tonight they might be doing the incest wankaroo.

@21: Yeah, I'd say it was dumb for a politician. But is it objectively poor judgment or just poor judgment considering our slut-shaming, invasive celebrity culture?

Mr Rhone - Do you think it's unacceptable to consider such an escapade a second-tier or third-tier deduction likely to count in a choice between two people if more important considerations are sufficiently close?

I'm fine with the elected officials having a lot of privacy and doing a lot of things I'd find extremely icky. But I have met quite a lot of elected officials, and it is irksome enough having to know they're almost all heterosexual. As for the behaviour in question here, DADTDGC works for me. I'll likely feel sorry for people who get caught and admit that it's often pure chance, but, if the first looks come out about equal, it may well count.

I can see Mr Savage's point in wanting such behaviour not to get all sorts of alarmist labels, but to take it so far as to want Mr W to win when his primary opponent is a quite unexceptionable lesbian who has put in a lot of time in the trenches and worked her way up (I remember her initial forays into seeking elected office, as I took some New York papers at the time) seems to be giving a pet concern an awful lot of priority.

@15: my point being, that if you are a NYC voter you're about to choose the person who's ultimately responsible for hauling away your overripe garbage and flushing away your stinking shit and repairing the damned potholes and making sure you're not mugged and killed on the way home from work. To the NYC voters this is just one of dozens of considerations. To someone comfortably far away in Seattle, you can have the luxury of cherry picking your favorite pet issues.

In short, unless you are actually a registered NYC voter, your opinion means precisely dick.

Sext all you want and stick your dick in whomever, but don't try and bribe people with jobs or lie.

And for those voting in NYC, I'm sure they still remember him as a senator laying the smack-down on Republicans trying to filibuster aid and care to 9/11 first-responders.

watch this and tell me where stupid pictures mean jack squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4sZbar…

Hell, I think the NSA should just release ALL naked pictures of elected officials they've copied onto their own databases just to put it all out there so nobody can be shamed (or blackmailed) like this ever again.

I flirted via text. I probably sent very raunchy messages to lovers. However. I don't send dick shots to strangers or people I know barely, or lots of lewd shots,. I guess there would be some embarrassing info on me via the web or through my browsing history, but I just find it weird for guys to send dick shots to strangers..

I concur with the others above. The thing that we should abandon Anthony Weiner over isn't the cock shots, but the pathetic lying about it and the sheer pathology of it all. I don't need politicians to be asexual, but I need them to show some basic capacity for self-control. I mean, come on - this is some crazy shit.

@15Fnarf,
Agree. He's a fool not a pervert. However, he needs to withdraw from the NYC mayor's race.

Maybe it would help if they stopped apologizing?

Mr. Ven @25: I suppose my answer to you (and everyone in this debate) is yes, I feel sending pictures of your dick to random people on the internet is foolish, especially if you are a politician seeking office. It is a bad idea in every practical way imaginable, and does call one's self-control into question. However, the reasons why dirty pictures on the internet are a bad idea to a politician are bullshit to begin with. To be sexually exhibitionistic towards willing potential partners is no indicator of job performance, and regardless, it is no one's business how he gets down and with whom. To sum up: It's stupid for Senator X to cheat on his wife while running for reelection. People will more than likely find out, judge him for it and vote for the other candidate . Whether it is remotely fair or any of our collective business to judge what Senator X's sex life consists of is an entirely different question, and, personally, my answer is no. I think it's this last point is what Dan was getting at- the culture at hand not the specific politician.

@lolorhone : I totally agree with you, but I'd like to add that it's only a dumb move for US, and some other countries', politicians. It wouldn't be for an European or African one.

Politicians engaging in inexploitative sex behaviors do get privacy in Europe - only rapist politicians' carreers should, and sometimes do get destroyed over here.

Compare with South Africa were M. Zuma is a prosecuted rapist whose career is very far from over. Had Zuma sent pictures of his dick to any prospective seventh wife or zillionth partner, would any media care ? No. Unless it was to cheer him on his manhood.

@3 & 7 We don't know what kind of marriage he has with his wife. If it's standard monogamous, I agree with venomlash. If not, with 3.

@34: Thank you, sissoucat, I should have pointed out the continental differences in political culture myself. Not that Americans would want a M. Zuma-like political figure, but we could use more of the "not even an issue" European stance to balance the extraneous bullshit in our process.

Mr Rhone - Fair enough, but "isn't fair" and "should be irrelevant to everybody" aren't exactly the same position. I'll agree with "isn't fair", which is less absolutist than your original.

I can compare the issue to speeding tickets, in that so many people exceed the speed limit and it seems almost random which ones get caught.

We could perhaps have an interesting discussion on what constitutes entirely fair voting criteria.

I'm close enough to agreement with you, and really much more concerned that Mr Savage is willing to throw a highly (probably more) qualified lesbian under the bus to make this point.

@22 I would never knowingly vote for someone who spells "cum" as "come".

What Fnarf said...I couldn't give a shit about his pictures but his judgement and his attempt the first time around to claim he was hacked (why did Dan forget that little detail?) is the problem. But New Yorkers will decide his fate, not Seattle

I am a NYC voter. I really liked Anthony Weiner. I thought he was a great congressman. He wasn't my congressman. We get a few seats in the big city. But, in Congress, he really represented my positions on national policy, and I thoroughly enjoyed him skewering the Republicans, and doing so smartly and acerbically, often with great impact.

Being stupid with his smartphone didn't piss me off. Being stupid with his dick didn't piss me off. There's plenty of stupid in Congress, and Weiner's personal variety was insignificant from a public policy point of view. His issue smarts more than made up for his stupidity in his personal online life, in my opinion.

I was rooting for him to stay on in office and not let himself get hounded out for what I saw as annoying, embarrassing, but ultimately irrelevant personal behavior. Staying on, laughing off his indiscretions, and keeping on the attack of his colleagues across the aisle, nothing could have made me prouder, or proven his toughness. (Personal toughness is important, especially in NYC politics.)

He quit. He broke my heart when he did. Would I give him a second chance? Not unless he can prove his toughness and go back on the offensive -- not against his opponents in the NYC mayoral race, but against Boehner's House, which is doing every variety of shit to all of our cities. I'd take a mayor with photo-evidenced balls over a Congress forever trying to fuck us, any day of the week.

Honestly, I like it. I prefer a carnivalesque lack of integrity in my politicians. I mean, they're all liars, thieves and perjurers - you just don't get beyond local politics without selling your vote and sucking a mountain of special-interest dick. It's refreshing when they carry their dishonesty on their sleeves. I'll take a Berlusconi over an Ashcroft any day.

@15. 100% nailed it.

Somehow Vitter and Sanford survived their sexcapades, so shrugs about Weiner. Hope he wins.

I'm with 40 on this. Politicians do the most fucked up shit all the time like sneaking anti-choice provisions into bills for bridge building so that women have to get vaginally probed in order to get shamed about their choice to get an abortion or the dude who represents the district that has the Abrams Tank factory that forced a middle of the night vote to that an order for hundreds of new tanks that the Pentagon had already rejected was rammed thru. So it feels a bit forced and fake to have all you morally upstanding people swooning over the fact that *gasp* this guy is a sociopath and a liar and how can we trust him. What? Take a look at who is already elected, they are all fuckers. I just prefer the obvious fuckers over the ones that pretend they are morally pure. Bill Clinton was a way better president than any since (yes including Obama) and he made the worst choices about whether to keep his dick in his pants. Can you imagine what he would have done with social media accounts? I fucking hate how we liberals have no balls and feel compelled to chastise this guy. As Brooklyn Reader points out, Wiener was a good congressman and wasn't afraid to take on the other side. I was bummed when Wiener quit, he was one of the good guys. As sex positive as we all on Slog like to think we are, it seems we are just a bunch of uptight prudes at the end of the day. I don’t agree with Dan Savage all the (most of) time but on this point, he nailed it.

@40 & 44: agreed. Clearly it's a "thing" for him and if he gets his thrills from sexting with willing participants - who cares? It would be refreshing to just have him admit it and like last weeks' Kinked Twink simply say, "I had a blast". I haven't seen the text of his chats, but I don't imagine they are any more shocking than anything in Fifty Shades, and yet we're all supposed to be clutching our pearls and having palpitations. All those higher level politicians are fucked up and we all know it, but still want to be in denial.

Well. None of us get to vote for or against the fuckwit, so it doesn't matter. Which won't stop the even bigger fuckwit here from blowing off.

Nobody cares. Your opinion doesn't matter. Go fuck yourself.

@46

The Internet goes all the way from here to New York, grandpa.

@15 -- Yeah, @15 is correct.

Mr. Ven @36: "We could perhaps have an interesting discussion on what constitutes entirely fair voting criteria."

My concept of fair voting criteria- absolutist though this might be- is that whatever is taken into consideration have something to do with the candidate's ability to perform the duties of his/her office. And, no, one's sex life does not qualify.

@49, this is not about a candidate's sex life. It's about integrity, and lying first, then admitting and apologizing, and then doing the same thing again doesn't demonstrate integrity.

Clearly I must be some sort of Victorian era aberration. Because, aside from some rather harsh opinions or maybe a scant amount of very vanilla pornography, scrutinizing my browser history, social media and or phone would find you no sexting or dirty pictures of myself (you're welcome) or anybody I know what so ever.

This is not because I am a prude - I don't think so - but rather because I am not some sort of compulsive raging narcissist. In fact I am rather embarrassed by occasionally pointlessly contributing to the socially retarded digital enclaves like SLOG.

And people who do this sort of sexting thing with no precautions and are surprised when it is magically found by a non-intended audience are obviously unfit for serious participation in grown-up society.

"All those higher level politicians are fucked up and we all know it, but still want to be in denial."

Bingo! Let's stop pretending that Wiener did something outside of the norm for politicians. His record in congress was boss.

"To be sexually exhibitionistic towards willing potential partners is no indicator of job performance, and regardless, it is no one's business how he gets down and with whom."

"Politicians engaging in inexploitative sex behaviors do get privacy in Europe"

I agree wholeheartedly with the principles expressed here, but they don't fit Weiner's case.

There's plenty of evidence now several of the young women to whom the images were sent were not "willing" participants and had done nothing to indicate they were potential partners other than being female.

This is also not "inexploitative " as some of his texts were sent to young women who wanted practical advice on their careers and politics. Some of what's come out seems to suggest he'd have went quid pro quo with them if they would have pushed it.

So, yes, you are all correct in principle, but not as applied to this case.

Don't think that the choice is either defending him or being a prude. He's not the man for whom you should ride into battle and risk your life.

@50: But it is though. If some commentators insist we keep this practical- "He knew what would happen so this is a question of his overall judgment"-then I assert that practically, if a politician is asked a personally invasive question that is really no one's business and will certainly result in a scandal, lying about it is pretty well incentivized and shouldn't be a ding on his overall integrity- especially since "It's none of your goddamn business" would not be an acceptable answer in this political culture. For the record, I say this as someone who's never sent a picture of my dick to anyone and never would. But if I did, I'd still consider it my business even if it was discovered by other people. Running for office increases scrutiny, but it does not decrease a right to privacy.

Mr Rhone - I'm inferring a lot of snippiness when I'm about 90% in agreement with you. If I sound snippy back, it's reactive, but I shall make an effort.

I won't disagree with your definition of fair criteria, but I may be a bit slippery here, as I don't insist on voting only by fair criteria. I can picture you, in an entertaining way, going down to the fifth decimal place and voting for a candidate who sets your teeth on edge because he or she would be .00001 better at the job than the alternative candidate whom you'd happily make your BFF.

You didn't say it, but if you had, I'd have entirely agreed with you that it's not fair of me to do such things as have adjustable criteria to reflect how much we need more women in elective office and especially more lesbians. The adjustment is not so much as it once was, but I don't foresee a time when no such adjustment is needed occurring during my lifetime. And given the unfairness operating against most women before they get to the point of my voting for them, I'm okay with it. And it's almost always only been a decider when the case was otherwise within my margin of error.

Actually, the one time I did vote for a woman against a male opponent who was admittedly more qualified, she won that state representative primary by 6 votes. He was later convicted of voter fraud in a previous election, when he had produced hundreds of votes from members of the electorate who turned out to have been deceased.

Mr. Ven @56: No snippiness intended. A little exasperation, perhaps, but that was before you went on record as not voting based upon fair criteria alone, a concept that makes sense to me outside the context of this debate. My notion of job ability does not necessitate experience but does require ideas I concur with. So the candidate who "sets my teeth on edge" would only get my vote if no other candidate had an amenable agenda. My notion of fair criteria in this context refers more to what might prevent a successful campaign/term than what might get them there. I never said that voting wasn't also a likeability contest; it's just these calls for Wiener's head seem much more based in personal distaste than an actually disqualifiable offense, no matter what claims to the contrary.

If the people he sent the pictures to were willing, not relevant and none of our business. If they were not willing then he's basically a creepy flasher. That is everyones business. If the later is the case then he has no business expecting anyone to vote for him.

Some people here are annoyingly full of shit. You can't be like, "Hey, I think it's bullshit that people think sexting should be a disqualifier" and then in the next breath say, "But he disqualified himself because it's poor judgment to do something that other people (not me of course) think is a disqualifier." That's total nonsense.

As far as specific things that bug you about Weiner, some are more justifiable than others. I am not planning to read all the history here, but the notion that he initiated sexting not with testing-the-waters sort of flirting, but by sending a dick pic...yeah, that's kind of bad news if true. But the reality is that this would've been a scandal if, in every single instance, the woman initiated the sexting. This is news because it's titillating and embarrassing. The notion of consent isn't even a footnote anyplace. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. If we get to the point where Weiner sending the exact same messages wouldn't be a story except for consent, then great. We're nowhere near that now.