Let's face it, Anthony Weiner did a stupid thing, but so do most people every day. Does that excuse him, no, should he lose his job? No. Should you lose your job for any stupid act? If we held people to that level of dignity few people would have jobs. It is not sufficient to compare Weiner's emailing images of his underwear to women with actual illicit sex acts by Republicans, they are not equivalent and that is not the point. The fact is that he did not break the law, like President Clinton he did lie to the American people, but, as opposed to Clinton he did not actually have "it" that is, sex.
Weiner should now respond with a bit more maturity, but he should not tone down his sarcasm nor his brilliant attacks on the idiocy of Republican behavior. Democrats should shut up on their calls for him to resign, it is self destructive and makes them look even more spineless than they are. Few have the guts to defend him, not for stupidity, no one can defend anyone for stupidity, rather, for the brave and intelligent politician he is. As the economic historian Carlo Cipolla put it in a wonderful essay on stupidity, we can see stupidity in others clearly, but are blind to it in ourselves. Folly, as Erasmus put his criticism of the Catholic church in the 16th century, is our daily bread as it parades as wisdom in the clothing of ignorance and arrogance. Certainly we should mock Weiner, we should make rude gestures every time we see him and we should remind him of his ludicrous behavior as often as possible, at least it will distract us from our own folly.
Remember, every time we think we can do things better (like Democratic love babies, thank you John Edwards) the Republicans do us one better (Schwarzenegger did it and then made his wife live with the mother for a decade!).