Weiner’s junk more important than 9% unemployment?

Another politician proves to be human.  Film at 11!

No scratch that.  We don’t want to see the film.

Here’s what I want to know:

1.) Did Weiner harass any of the recipients of his sexts?  From what I can see, sexual harassment is pretty much under control in the corporate world, though it seems to be thriving in the political world.  French women are ready to take off some heads over the DSK incident.  They seem to think American women have this issue licked. But sexual harassment is for amateurs.  Working women know that more insidious forms of discrimination fly under the radar.  It’s the stuff that harder to pin down that can ruin a career: emails that are never responded to, phone calls not returned, names left off the meeting list, information not shared, constant criticism of women employees coupled with effusive praise of the men, resulting in whole departments where all of the women are in junior positions compared to all of the men.  Layoff time comes, guess who gets the ax?  (Read the last paragraph of Krugthulu’s latest Conscience of a Liberal post.  It is unintentionally revealing.)  The gratuitous misogynism against Hillary Clinton in 2008 seems to have made the problem worse because no one was held responsible.  We all witnessed it and the guys who did it got away with it.  That was quite an example to set for the rest of society and the world.  Congratulations, Democrats!

2.) If he didn’t harrass anyone, why do we care what he did with his dick?  I mean, seriously, when are we Americans going to stop stopping the news to chase down what people do with their bits and pieces?  All data seem to point to the conclusion that hormones will make us do stupid things that make grown ups look like horny teenagers.  Ok, most people never grow up.  Where’s the news in that?  If Weiner didn’t do anything ethically wrong, he should volunteer to resign right after David Vitter does.

3.) Unemployment is still at 9%.  I see not one but THREE  headlines about Weiner’s dick on the front page of the NYTimes.   Here, here and here. I take that back.  There are two more.  This one and this one.  And this one.  Six.  The way the press is piling on reminds me of the way they piled on Eric Massa.  Oooo, out comes the threats of an ethics committee investigation (see point 1 above).  And apparently, no one liked him.  Stupid Liberal.

Stop the press cycle!  There are millions of people out of work, losing their houses, health insurance and struggling to feed their kids.  Let’s all look at what Anthony Weiner did with his junk!  This is the hot, breaking story that will make Andrew Breitbart!  Will he become the conservative blogosphere’s version of Kim Kardashian?

What are Obama and Congress going to do about unemployment?  Paul Krugman is following up on Christie Romer’s insider bean spilling in The Fatal Pivot: Why did half of Obama’s economic team decide to pivot its attention away from the plight of the unemployed to the deficit?  Why didn’t they see the destruction of the country’s scientific infrastructure in the unemployment numbers?  That is going to weigh heavily on Obama’s legacy.  Not only did he allow millions of people to slip into poverty, he allowed the careful dismantling of our R&D industry.  In recent months, the dismantling has accelerated.  Companies can’t seem to shed jobs fast enough.  Pretty soon, there will be too few scientists left to do research and the marketing and advertising guys will have to pick up the slack in the labs.  (As if)

I’m not voting for that kind of shortsighted underperformance and no lefty should settle for it this far out from the election.  We should all be asking ourselves why we are putting up with this crap.

Focus, left blogosphere.  There is an opportunity to turn this around if we all stick together.  The media attention to the lascivious and prurient is disgraceful when so many people are suffering.  Shame on the NYTimes.