And he apologizes, both to the people who claimed to have good reasons for demanding Anthony Weiner's resignation, and to the people he's letting down by switching sides in this argument. Which, he, (I) am doing. Right now. Right this fucking minute.
It has been amply proved to me by some very patient Kossacks that Representative Anthony Weiner had bad horrible, perverted reasons for his conversations with that 17 year-old girl.
I'm not ashamed that I had to have it proved to me. I am ashamed (at least a little) that it took so long to prove it to me.
But here's the thing. I'm still against calling for Anthony Weiner's resignation. Instead, I think he should be formally removed from Congress. I think he should be booted with as close to a unanimous vote as possible. Why?
Because resignations are sleazy. They nullify elections without adequate (often without any) explanation to the voters why their votes are being overruled. Votes are all we've got. Not only that, they're all we need. Even ridiculous, un-American Supreme Court decisions like "Citizens United" pale in power, when compared to each citizen's vote. For example, all the money on the planet cannot convince U.S. voters that the Ryan Medicare Plan is a good deal.
When a Congressman is removed from office, the voters in his or her district deserve to see every bit of evidence as to why their votes are being, in effect, discarded. For those who will say that a formal removal will hurt Democrats more than a resignation, all I can say is that I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about our rights as citizens of this country. That, even though at this point I can't see how a resignation could be better politically than Democrats' willingness to expel one of their own for good cause. You know, do the right thing.
It works both ways. Congress shouldn't have the right to intimidate and basically scare a member of Congress into resignation. If they have the means to fire someone, they should have to prove it. If they don't have enough on a member to formally fire them, then they should have to leave that firing to the voters in the next election.
Resignations are expedient to everyone except the voters. Nevada Republican John Ensign's resignation was expedient for him, and politically expedient for the GOP. The citizens of Nevada and of the United States of America will never, ever get the complete story now. Nor will we learn who and to what extent he had help from other members of Congress.
Again, I apologize to the Daily Kos community. Both to those who now love me, and to those who now hate me. I'm a dick.
I now believe that Anthony Weiner should be formally ejected, fired, (whatever it is called) from the U.S. House of Representatives. I believe this can be done quickly and with a near-unanimous vote of both the Ethics Committee and the House as a whole. I also believe it will be politically preferable to Democrats, as compared to demanding and accepting Representative Weiner's resignation.
I know. IOKIYAR.
There are times we should be proud of that.
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UPDATE: Okay. In my embarrassed haste, I neglected to include what changed my mind -- what proved to me that Weiner had sexual intentions with the young lady. In one of his conversations with the 17 year-old girl, Weiner used the phrase "I came back strong. Large. Tights and cape." Now remember, I didn't WANT to believe this was anything except an innocent Superman reference. I mean, his inclusion of the word "Large" is a bit troublesome, but still no proof. Right? Well Weiner used the exact same phrase in one of his full hardon sexual conversations with one of the older cyberfuck ladies. I tried to explain even that as meaningless. I tried to say that still wasn't proof. Just didn't work. With the rest of what we know, that would convince most juries of Weiners nasty intentions. And it convinced me. This hurt, folks. I still feel bad about it. But I'm not going to pretend I don't have adequate proof. I think Anthony Weiner was beginning to attempt a seduction. And it's like finally seeing one of those optical-illusion hidden-images. I can no longer think that Anthony Weiner DIDN'T intend on seducing that young lady. I completely understand if the image hasn't flipped for some of my much beloved fellow Kossacks. I will rec anyone and everyone who disagrees with me.
