The guy made a bunch of firebrand speeches, and he had some good points. He got on TV a lot because of it, and pushed hard on his opponents.
However, this isn't the first time he did something stupid that hurt his credibility.
Original source, New York Times
“When I become mayor, you know what I’m going to spend my first year doing?” Mr. Weiner said to Mr. Bloomberg, as tablemates listened. “I’m going to have a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your [expletive] bike lanes.”
I link to the "District 5 Diary", home base of one Rob Anderson, who sued the City of San Francisco because the City did not do an Environmental Impact Report for the Bike Plan which consisted primarily of bike lanes, sharrows, and bike racks. Then when the City did the EIR, he appealed the EIR's conclusion. Basically, the guy thinks bike lanes are a bad idea for his own reasons, and figured out he could work environmental protection laws to stop them. He's a nobody - yet thousands of people in San Francisco know his name and consider him no better than George Bush. He is responsible for huge growth in the advocacy community in SF that starts with someone who decides to ride his bike to work to save a few bucks on gas, moves on to trying to get some bike lanes, then fundraising for progressive and environmental causes, and so on, and so on. The San Francisco Bike Coalition is a very powerful force in City politics, on Bike to Work Day 10 of 11 Supervisors plus the Mayor rode to work and tried to top themselves at the press conference making promises for improvements for cyclists - and are already delivering.
The cyclist community is very big, largely Democratic, and very active. I mean, when the scandal breaks, and "The Bike Snob NYC" starts circling looking for a dead body that isn't a good sign.
Especially when he follows up by photoshopping Rip Torn's Mug Shot onto the body.
Stupid usually isn't a one time event. If Rob Anderson is patting you on the back and BSNYC is all over your back, you're making some pretty big mistakes. If you are unpolished enough to alienate a big, growing, and very active community that is squarely on your side with an untoward comment that "was a joke" (translation: "I didn't think anyone would hear it, let alone get it published in the Times"), then you are going to make some other mistakes too. I for one, am not surprised by this situation, and think those mourning Weiner's demise have watched the firebrand
speeches and drank the Kool-Aid.
Even Obama makes a few mistakes. But when he had his poor choice of words in the Gates/Crowley affair, he addressed it and invited the parties to the White House for a beer.
Weiner said "I generally support bike lanes" and later tweeted "Obv joking in NYT but serious about the danger of making bikes and consultation a choice. #bikelanebacklashavoidable". What???
New York is full of very talented people, moving Anthony Weiner aside will only open the door for someone else to take a shot at being a Lion for the Liberals. Just one progressive cyclists opinion.