I, like many others, can never get enough Weiner

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Anthony Weiner is just another garden-variety scumbag with absolutely no personal integrity.

The question I would like to ask is whether we should really care about this?  That is, given the choice, would we rather have people in government who are garden-variety scumbags -- but who advocate for policies that we believe optimally serve the interests of the citizenry -- or people who have high moral character, but are incompetent at governing and/or are completely wrong-headed when it comes to public policy?

My own sense is that I'd rather have someone skim half a million from the public coffers and make decisions that save us billions than someone who is squeaky clean -- but whose incompetence undermines justice and prudence.
 

Comments

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Personally I reserve the right to lie to anyone about my personal life.

It's none of their business, so they have no right to the truth.

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Eh. Depending on your model of representation (delegatory vs. representative) the judgment of politicians is a huge factor. If you're selecting them as delegates to make decisions for you, then having the stupid, dumb arrogance to try this type of thing and then think you can lie your way out of it is a huge issue. If you think that politicians are just there to be sockpuppets for the majority in their home district, though, this sort of behavior is far more acceptable.

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind there is no such thing as a human being that does not lie, the fact that an individual lied in itself made public should not be a point against them in any sensible world.

Is it a bad (i.e. poorly judged) lie, that was unlikely to be successful? Then this might speak to his judgement. But a single instance where he was caught out in a lie about a topic which he is entirely within rights to lie about is hardly conclusive of anything.

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

It's a pretty big lie, and it was pretty clear to everyone immediately that something fishy was going on. The fact that he thought he could deflect the whole thing with "let's talk about the debt ceiling" means he is, at the very least, culturally tone-deaf.

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Well I don't disagree it was an error.

But it's hard to say what it really means about him. Sure, it's suggestive, but like I said, not really conclusive of anything.

His performance in the past might be worth examining before we leap make character judgements based on a single judgement error.

Re: Maybe I'm just restating the OP here, but whatever

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Agreed, it's just relevant. And "relevant" is a really low bar, despite what some people seem to think.