Weiner, President

"Sympatico"

by D. J. Herda

After following the hoopla surrounding disgraced New York congressman Anthony Weiner for the past several weeks, I noticed some striking similarities between what Weiner has been doing lately and what Barack Obama has been up to.  Here are a few that caught my eye.

On Being Shovel-Ready

Weiner, in talking to Democratic congressman Charlie Rangel about the wisdom of appearing before a congressional ethics committee, reminded the convicted tax cheat that he could shovel the political manure better than any other loud-mouthed, arrogant, grating, psychopathic member of congress around.  Replied Rangel, "You think so?"  to which Weiner laughed out loud.  Three days later, Weiner resigned from Congress before the ethics committee could meet.

Obama, defending the failure of his trillion-dollar stimulus program before the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, grinned and said, “Shovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.”  The Council, led by General Electric's  corporate CTE (Chief of Tax Evasion) Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter, as if everyone knew it had been a big joke from the very start.

On Public Coverups

Weiner, on attempting to cover up his disgraceful deviant behavior, sat down with the country's leading television, newspaper, and social media outlets to explain how his Facebook account had been "hacked into" by spammers who had posted photographs of him without his knowledge or permission.  In opening up that lie, Weiner placed the onus of cleaning up the mess on Facebook, the American people, and the press so that his own good name could be restored as quickly as possible.

Obama, in attempting to cover up America's continuing crisis of unemployment by calling the sagging job market a "bump in the road," blamed discouraging monthly employment figures on modern technology, as in the case of ATM machines and cash-dispensing kiosks that cost bank tellers their jobs.  He neglected to point out that his "bump in the road" was only another Obama lie, since for every teller who might lose his job to a kiosk, tens of thousands of other new jobs are created to build, program, install, and service the machines.  Not to mention the materials providers and electronics industries reaping huge profits from every new machine order placed.

On Public Gullibility

Weiner, who in his resignation speech due to his online philandering, said he regretted the "embarrassment" he had caused so many people.  He failed to address his theft of far more than confidence by cavorting with a porn star, misusing state funds, abusing his political office, and preying on underage girls while he was being paid to represent his district in congress.  Estimates of the funds Weiner stole from his constituents range from ten to more than $40 thousand.  The disgraced congressman did remember during his speech, however, to throw his mother and father an anchor so that he might feel better about himself: "And of course I want to express my gratitude to my family, to my mother and father who instilled in me the values that have carried me this far."

Obama once vowed to hold daily economic briefings to keep in check the economic "mess that my predecessor left us."  Obama stopped holding the meetings in early April, though, which was coincidentally when he switched into high-speed campaign mode (before that, he'd been on cruise control).  The man who calls the economy the number one crisis facing the American people has squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money in an attempt to prove it.  Apparently he feels that a campaign stump to Puerto Rico, regularly scheduled globe-hopping "dates" with his wife, 14 vacations with his family in two-and-a-half years, and 74 golf dates he has managed to keep since ascending the White House were even more critical to the nation's economic health and welfare.

On Honesty and Integrity in Politics

Weiner, in his infinite wisdom, defied the congressional ethics committee, House Leader John Boehner, Obama, and Obama's minions Harry Reid and Nancy-Can't-Keep-Her-Tongue-in-Her-Pantsy Pelosi who told him he had to resign immediately.  He dragged his feet for nearly three weeks while secretly cajoling house Dems into offering him a job in exchange for his resignation, part of the congressman's continuing efforts to make his one of the most disgraceful political tenures in history.     

Obama, in his infinite wisdom, defied his own attorney general who told him that the military action in Libya falls under the category of "hostilities" and therefore requires congressional approval after 90 days.   The Republicans know it, and so does Obama.  But he doesn't want to look still weaker than he already does by giving his adversaries yet more ammunition against him for the 2012 elections.  Obama told his advisers to hush up the matter and keep it out of the press until he gets Gaddafi out, part of the president's continuing efforts to make his the most open administration in history.

At least that's the way I see it.

Anyone up for C-Span?  Anyone?

And I…am D. J. Herda.

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D. J. Herda is President of the American Society of Authors and Writers (http://amsaw.org), an organization made up of authors, writers, editors, publishers, agents, directors, producers, and other media professionals who rely upon the printed word in the creation of quality literature and entertainment.  He is a member of the Author's Guild, a former member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and a former member of the National Press Club.  He has published more than 80 books and several hundred thousand articles, short stories, columns, interviews, plays, and scripts.
 

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