Weiner vs. Gingrich

By Tom Quiner

I asked my twenty year old son this question:

“What would embarrass you the most? Would it be if your father sent pics of his private parts to young girls and women he didn’t know? Or would it be if your Mom and I got divorced?” (For the record, we just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary and are quite happy.)

He said “where you going with this, Dad?!” I put him at ease and let him know it is a purely hypothetical question. He said no doubt about it, sending photos of my private parts would be far more embarrassing.

What have we come to when we have to have this type of conversation about one of our nation’s Congressman?

Many supporters of Anthony Weiner (the New York Congressman about whom I speak) like to say, “well at least he didn’t cheat on his wife like Newt Gingrich did”, as if Mr. Weiner hasn’t violated his pregnant wife’s trust.

Marital infidelity is a serious offense against one’s spouse. And it is often a sign of a severe character flaw. But if an elected official is unfaithful to his wife, it does not necessarily humiliate the entire country if he remains in office. Let’s face it, divorce is prevalent and no longer a social stigma like it once was.

But an elected official who takes photos of his own private parts and sends them to strangers DOES humiliate an entire nation if we let him remain in office. We simply take another step toward normalizing another perversion.

You don’t even have to ask your own children the question I asked my son. You already know what they’d say. The actions of Mr. Weiner would humiliate them far beyond even a divorce.

When a growing cadre of Democrats call for Mr. Weiner’s resignation, you know we have reached a line in the sand.

Will he do the honorable thing and resign?