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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Anthony Weiner, the greatest that never was

You and I might have a bad day here and there, but Anthony Weiner has had a bad six years. The worst part is it was entirely of his own making.

When news broke Sunday that the embattled politician was involved in an extramarital sexting scandal for the third time, my first reaction was one of amused incredulity.

Add in the fact that his toddler son is lying next to him in a lewd photo, and this might be his most bewildering and cringe-inducing gaffe yet. This is even stranger than the 2013 scandal, in which it was revealed he sexted women under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.”

You know it’s beyond ridiculous when you have to refer to his sexting scandals by the year in which they occurred because there’s so many of them. You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

But once the shock of the news subsided and I tried to examine Weiner’s tragic fall from grace, I had different feelings ­— feelings I never expected I’d have.

Could I really feel empathy for Weiner, the same guy who embarrassed his wife and family not once or twice, but three times and squandered multiple chances to reform himself?

Weiner is a tragic figure. It’s truly a shame that a man who was once such a promising New York politician and advocate for the middle class could yet again fall victim to his own hubristic stupidity and squander his career, public image and marriage.

He was the subject of a critically-acclaimed documentary released last spring, “Weiner.” The image of him conveyed by the film as a film crew follows his path to redemption during his 2013 bid for New York City mayor isn’t one we’re used to seeing from today’s established politicians.

Instead, what you see is what you get. Weiner is brutally honest. His brash, unadulterated demeanor embodies what a New York City career politician should be. He even engages with hecklers, responding to one who called him a “real scumbag” with a sharp retort: “It takes one to know one, jackass.”

With all that he’s put himself through, how could this willingness to go toe-to-toe with a heckler not inspire even a little bit of empathy for Weiner?

At this point, as a multiple offender, Weiner’s moral compass seems to be essentially non-existent. But at all points of his career, he has displayed a fiery passion for his constituents.

He’s marched in gay pride parades, advocated for LGBT rights, championed the pro-choice cause and voted for measures to protect the environment.

While his commitment to his wife and family is questionable, his commitment to public service isn’t.

Are Weiner’s offenses as egregious as those of former New York State Senator Dean Skelos, who this spring was sentenced to five years in prison on bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges?

What about those of Michael Grimm, the former U.S. Representative from Staten Island, New York, who served eight months for tax evasion and famously threatened to “break” a reporter “in half like a boy”?

I don’t think so.

Some politicians are misappropriating tax dollars and exploiting their constituents.

Weiner’s wrongdoings, while absolutely inexcusable, were confined to his own personal sphere.

Anthony Weiner could have been a great politician. Now that he’s made himself tabloid fodder for the third time, I can only hope that one day he will gain the wisdom to change his behavior and reinvent himself.

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