Adultery? Sure. Abuse of power? No thanks.

Sex sells.

It just does.

Sometimes I really wish it didn’t, but then I catch myself watching the gratuitous nudity each week on “True Blood” and I remember how happy I am sex sells.

But that, of course, is in the realm of entertainment. But what are politics if not entertainment with much higher stakes and more ill-fitting suits?

So it comes as no surprise when former Congressman and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner gets caught with his pants down again and the media goes
crazy with the story.

I’ll spare you the slick jokes and puns about his name and skip right to the meaty stuff.

Oops. Never mind.

Anyway, Weiner got caught sexting women via Twitter back in 2011 and resigned from Congress. Recently, he’s had a career comeback running for mayor of N.Y.C. and was leading heavily in the polls, but more adulterous activity has surfaced online.

Many of his fellow candidates have publicly stated Weiner should drop out of the race, but Weiner has remained stagnant.

So here’s how all this fluff boils down. Adultery is not the issue here. I’m not saying adultery is by any means a quality action, but that isn’t what makes Weiner scum.

What makes the man scum is the blatant abuse of power given his position.

When you read through the exchanges between Weiner and the mystery woman – which I’ve done to spare you the pain – it’s very clear the woman is turned on by Weiner’s position in culture and politics. He’s glad to exploit the woman’s infatuation with his celebrity status, asking her how he looks on television and in pictures. 

Weiner is hardly the first politician to be caught cheating on their spouse. President Bill Clinton did it back in the ’90s to a much bigger and juicier media dialogue, and he’s been predominantly forgiven by the public. Did Clinton abuse his power? Probably. Should he be ridiculed just as incessantly as Weiner? Most likely.

So what’s the difference?

The difference is that we’re living in a new age of scandal. Weiner’s extramarital affairs and trysts are written online in permanent ink for the world to see.

Plus the guy just kind of looks like a scumbag. At least Clinton had the Ivy League good looks and the “Aw, shucks!” mentality.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m covering for dirty politicians everywhere, because I’m not. I only wish that a scandal like this was actually shocking, because how surprised are we really? People have sex. People have sex with people who aren’t their partners.

Then we elect those people to public office and have to pretend it’s some great, big revelation when they get caught doing immoral things.

I don’t care that Weiner cheated on his wife (although he obviously didn’t learn to cover his tracks better after the first time around). 

While I feel bad for her, I respect her decision to stay with her husband despite his discrepancies. After all, it’s no person’s duty to say whether she should or should not leave her spouse.

What I do care about is that a man who takes the power granted to him by the voting populace sees fit to abuse it by preying on unassuming and naïve (and, in this case,
attractive female) constituents.

I might vote an adulterer into public office, but you’ll never catch me voting for a man using his power in all the wrong ways.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu