I get it that the lying is the real problem. That actually is the part that breaks my heart for all y'all who were out there proving he'd been framed. I was perfectly ready to believe that, but I guess it doesn't surprise me that it turned out not to be true.

I don't personally understand what makes a guy want to send pictures of his dick to strangers. It seems to me like it should be real easy to avoid doing shit like that. Then again, a lot of people find it real easy to avoid eating cheese, and I don't, even though I know it's not good for me. Nobody can always follow all the rules they should be following all the time. It ought to be good enough for our elected representatives to follow the rules about 1) not hurting other people 2) not breaking the law 3) not being corrupt and 4) doing what they honestly think is the best thing for their constituents and for the country. Whether a guy wants to maintain some kind of virtual sexting harem doesn't bother me as much as it would have bothered me, say, 20 years ago--unless the harem starts to involve minors.

(I know, y'all are going to tell me that Weiner violated #4. Yes. But only because we live in a world where people are made to care about crap like this. The standards for what counts as "poor judgment" are becoming so low that soon it will be impossible for any human being in elected office to exercise 'good judgment' all the time.)

Not sure what's made the difference, except that I'm older and I guess I have come around to the opinion there are no heroes any more. It's not just that nobody's perfect. The heroes we were able to believe in back in the days of yesteryear were made possible by our strategic ignorance of their personal flaws. Martin Luther King Jr. himself could not have become a hero in today's environment. Oh, sure, he's changing the world by leading one of the most succesful nonviolent civil rights movements in history; but did you see that email he sent to that staffer? CREE-PY!

Some kind of rational balance has to be reached with all this. I mean, I am faithful to my wife. I do not have a Twitter account. I have never taken a picture of myself in my underwear, nor do I flirt with women half my age. According to media logic, I would be a perfect Congressional representative, or even, dare I say, president. And yet I know that I would be a disaster in either job, because you know what, whether you can avoid putting yourself in embarrassing sexual situations doesn't really have a whole lot of bearing on whether you can get a @#$! law passed, which is actually Rep. Weiner's job.

Perhaps this doesn't seem as serious to me as it does to some of you guys because I'm still mourning the loss to the party of John "let's father a child on someone and then corrupt ourselves in order to keep it under wraps" Edwards. I kind of wish he had just stuck to sending out humiliating pictuers on Twitter.

The only silver lining here is that I am sure there will be some good Daily Shows out of this. I only wish it were still marching band season.

@#$!,

The Plaid Adder