Where there's smoke, there's Weiner

Back in 1989 when I took over the Chesterfield beat for a local daily newspaper that will go unnamed to protect the innocent, the person I was replacing gave me some good advice.  He explained how, in Chesterfield at least, I should believe most of the people who report things “going on” within the government and that if it’s of a sexual nature treat the gossip as gospel and start digging.

It was sage advice as over the next several years all kinds of rumors floated over, around, and through my office. Some were hard to prove despite having multiple witnesses, because the witnesses were, in one way or another, tainted.  And, try as I might, I could not get the “clean” witness to go on the record because she was fearful of losing her job.  I don’t blame her; she certainly would have been persecuted and even if she hadn’t lost her job, she might not have been able to hold onto it due to her own internal stress.

But along with that incident came several cases of a sexual nature that spanned virtually every facet of local government.  The Sheriff’s office was the first in a series of sexual snafus. It was followed quickly by the Fire Department, Police Department, Judiciary, and the sanctified halls of justice.  No one, it seemed, was immune.

Yes right here in Virginia, the bedrock of Democracy, the Mother of Presidents, decadence was and is rife.  More recently, there was a situation in Colonial Heights that resulted in the removal of a former city employee.  My point here is that you don’t have to go far afield to find plenty of dirty doings right in our own back yard.  So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to find that the same kind of amoral disease lurks in Washington.

Are we to be surprised by the actions of Congressman Anthony Weiner?  Are his actions the result of nurture or nature?  Or is he just acting as human beings act when they think they are beyond reproach?  Certainly, he is not the first person to do something so wantonly stupid.  Even former presidents have acted inappropriately, so why all of a sudden is some of the body politic so concerned over this sexting scandal involving one of congress’ junior members?

One would think that the Brett Favre incident would have served notice on just how stupid taking and sending pictures of body parts can be.  Favre was ridiculed and his body part was copied across the internet.

It’s hard to figure just what about this whole thing is the most alarming.  On one hand you have the massive ego to think that someone would be thrilled to get your own scandalous picture sent by phone message. On the other hand, you have to deal with the extreme stupidity of the person to think that such a thing would not get out to the public.

It’s just amazing.  These are the kinds of people we have holding office and making decisions that directly affect our futures.  What’s even more disconcerting is that there has been no witch hunt to find these people.  They have pretty much gone belly up on their own.  We, the public, don’t have to ferret out the next person to throw on the mound of amoral or immoral miscreants.  Like lemmings, they just seem content to walk to the edge and throw themselves over.

That said what would it be like if we did start to look?  What if we took seriously some of the situations that came to light during the vetting process for people seeking major political office?  I remember back to days of yore when everyone just sort of tossed off the situation, or tried to diminish it by citing all kinds of deeds done by past high-level officials.

Sorry, it doesn’t work for me.  These people should be ashamed of what they have done.  But it doesn’t seem to shame them much; they just go about their business as if nothing ever happened. In Mr. Weiner’s case, it amounts to “getting help” with his problem.  But what help can you give a person who has the moral turpitude of a night crawler?

Strange, I always felt that those in public office should be held to a higher standard than those huddled masses that look to them for guidance.  Truly, they live in the fishbowl. A place where every thought, phrase, and deed is put under a magnifying glass and then flashed across every HD screen in the world showing every mispronunciation or social gaffe.

With all of these sexual peccadilloes rising to the level of big news, we can only hope that the masses don’t start to demand investigations into the other members of congress.  There’s an old saying “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” We are witnessing tons of smoke.