Should Congressman Weiner Resign?

The chorus of Republican voices calling for the resignation of Anthony Weiner, the star of a sex scandal for having sent obscene photos via Twitter and then accusing a hacker, has joined that of Weiner’s fellow Democrats. It makes sense because they, including Wiener himself, are the most affected by the scandal.

Without a doubt, the Democratic Congressman has found himself in a difficult situation. It seems incredible that someone in his position and with his ambitions did not learn the painful lesson of Tiger Woods and dedicated himself to sending compromising photos to women he had not even seen in person.

I think politically, however, he could have survived these stupid acts if he had simply confessed the truth when the first photo was published; incidentally, he sent that one out publicly. At the end of the day, compared to other sexual scandals, his story is insignificant, and that is merely pathetic.

Weiner did not violate any law, like politicians caught in brothels, and if we have been told the whole truth now, he did not have sexual relations with any of these women. His greatest sin was lying and showing an impressive impudence in all of the interviews that he gave in the days after the publication of the famous photo of his “package.” We know that in a society as marked by the Protestant ethic as the U.S., lying is hardly excusable, even if only to conceal a private matter.

In a modern version of the old mobs, Weiner has received a media lynching that seems excessive to me. Certainly, he made a grave mistake, but the treatment he has received in some media outlets is itself criminal. It seems to me he’s just a poor devil, though he has a government title.

At the moment, he is trying to resist the downpour without resigning. Maybe he will succeed, especially if he really confessed the whole truth in his press conference Monday, or if in the coming days another sensational story relegates him to the back burner. It will all depend on his ability to be patient. Since he has not committed any illegality, it cannot be put before him that his only choice is resignation or possible jail time.

From my point of view the decision is his alone. A politician should always resign if he is prosecuted, has broken the law or has participated in corrupt practices. That, however is not the case here. It is the case, of course, for Charlie Rangel, who, among other irregularities, “forgot” to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, despite being a veteran member of the committee that approves tax legislation. Nevertheless, he did not receive such strong pressure to resign.

We can only accuse Weiner of having violated the trust that his voters put in him to lie like a scoundrel about his private life. Therefore, if his conscience leads him to resign, it would be an act of honor. If he prefers to let the voters decide his sentence, we will just wait a few months to learn the verdict because the Democratic primaries will be next spring, and they surely do not need enemies.