The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Impossible to Parody

Posted on | June 10, 2011 | 23 Comments

Anthony Weiner’s disgrace goes from tragedy to farce, as he finds himself absurdly defended by Alec Baldwin:

He exists under a constant pressure cooker of self-analysis and public appraisal. Like other politicians, he needs something to take the edge off. For some people, regardless of occupation, that could mean booze, drugs, gambling, food or shopping. For high functioning men like Weiner and other officials who have lived through such scandals, who are constantly on the go, that leaves one tried and true source of a reliable high. The affirmation that comes when someone lets you know they want to sleep with you. Or even cyber-sleep with you.
This is sex for many people now. No time for Mateus and cheap spaghetti. No time for slowly moving toward one another with a combination of hope and caution, lust and integrity. One can push a button and get something beyond porn. Porn is essentially two dimensional. One sees and hears. Internet sexting can be perceived as three dimensional by adding the component of “feel”, regardless of how cheap and unearned those feelings are. That person on the screen is doing whatever they’re doing… just for you.
Weiner is so busy, he forgot the important rule that everyone you interact with on this plane becomes a co-conspirator. You rely on them to remain confidential.
Weiner is the modern, high functioning man. The fact that he is married is just one, albeit a huge, factor.

Let’s stop for a minute, first, to consider the character of the man offering this defense of Weiner: Alec Baldwin, who had these cheerful thoughts for his own 12-year-old daughter:

“Once again I’ve made an a– of myself getting to a phone to make a phone call … I’m tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time …You’ve made feel like sh– and you’ve made feel like a fool over and over again … I’m going to straighten your a– out … You are a rude, thoughtless little pig.”

Baldwin is a profoundly flawed human being and therefore defends the profoundly flawed Weiner as a comrade — a defense that liberal Baldwin would never offer to any Republican similarly exposed, but let’s go ahead and admit that conservative bloggers are loving this scandal precisely because Weiner is a Democrat.

Yet the partisan parallels are not perfect. One cannot merely say “tu quoque.” Why? Because liberals repeatedly assert that conservatives are stupid, ignorant, unsophisticated, etc., which makes it incumbent upon liberals to justify their pretensions to intellectual superiority.

This is why Joan Walsh is so risible. So long as Weiner stuck by his denials, Walsh continued to insist that this was just a phony scandal ginned up by Breitbart and “his army of political sewer workers.” You might have thought that, endowed with the insuperable mental excellence inherent to liberalism, Walsh would have been able to examine the available evidence and conclude, “Hey, maybe there’s something going on here.” But that didn’t happen, did it?

Nor did Alec Baldwin, before publicly empathizing with Weiner as a “modern, high functioning man,” hesitate long enough to examine the full extent of the suspicions swirling around the embattled congressman.

IYKWIMAITYD.

But that disturbing topic, which others recently have developed in some detail, deserves a post of its own. I will, however, ask if you think that a majority of Weiner’s constituents — who told a pollster the congressman should not resign — are more fully aware of the facts than Alec Baldwin. Because I don’t think they are.

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Category: Anthony Weiner

Comments

  • Alec Baldwin

    Tina Fey digs me. 

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I read something to the effect that Baldwin is openly considering running for Mayor of New York, so if that’s true, puts his defense in some kind of context. He’s just trying to appear as though he’s taking the high road, not wanting to appear to be just another negative dirt-slinging politician by pointing to what he considers Weiner’s good qualities and contributions as a public servant. Someone might have advised him to walk back some of his earlier comments which weren’t nearly as laudatory.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs Kim Jong Il
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs Kim Jong Il
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs Kim Jong Il

    Canteen Boy and the Scoutmaster is symbolism for Anthony Weiner and Chuck Schumer. 

    Anthony Weiner is really a victim you see. 

  • Carolina

    I will, however, ask if you think that a majority of Weiner’s constituents — who told a pollster the congressman should not resign — are more fully aware of the facts than Alec Baldwin. Because I don’t think they are.

    Let’s blame the voters and the ignorant public if a poll or public opinion doesn’t go our way. All said, those constituents who think Weiner should resign might be more ignorant than those who think he should complete his elected term.

  • http://2011.ak4mc.us/ McGehee

    (to the tune of “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof”)

    Projectio-o-o-on…
    PROJECTION!

  • http://leatherpenguin.com/wordpress/ TC_LeatherPenguin

    Patterico is really laying out the case of “The People v. Weiner” with that 3 parter he’s got running… any objective jury would come back with a guilty verdict in less than an hour.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    New Yorkers are just so used to getting screwed they have gotten to the point they like it, so naturally they don’t want the Weiner to pull out too soon.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    They’re from Queens.  They only complain about underage sex when it’s outside the family.  Once they hear about that, Weiner’s screwed.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    High functioning. *snicker*

  • http://positivelyright.blogspot.com Hugh Vaughan-Williams

    So he showed his shvantz, already. You gotta problem with that?

  • Anamika

    Some interesting material today, thanks to RSM and Alec Baldwin. I like the idea that forgiveness is like, or in the same realm as grace. One can only be open to it.

    One thing that might be added is that there is a difference between approval and forgiveness. Neither implies the other but they are often conflated. Yes, a very sticky point that has yet to beat like a dead horse, so lets rectify that. As long as it is believed that some behavior is
    wrong, and that the voicing of disaproval is what prevents ‘bad’
    behavior, and that a value judgment is required as a part of this
    voicing, and that the one placing the value judgment is correct beyond
    any reasonable doubt, then forgiveness must be equated with approval,
    and remorse, appology and the promise of rehabilitation must be present
    prior to forgiveness. This is why our friend cannot start the car until
    the key is turned.

  • Anonymous

    Look at the actual Marist poll results.  Only 411 registered voters were surveyed, and the poll was conducted Wednesday, June 8 – perhaps before some of them knew of the X-rated photo.  Margin of error – 5 pts!

    http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/nycpolls/c110608/Congressman%20Anthony%20Weiner/Congressman%20Anthony%20Weiner%20Resignation.htm   

    ABC & the rest of the Leftist media are trumpeting the results of this poll.  It is not an accurate reflection, IMHO.

    Years ago I had to take an entire semester course in Inductive Logic.  It should be a graduation requirement (along w/ another semester in Deductive Logic) for all college students.  We had to study how polls & surveys are conducted etc.  Always look carefully at the methodology of the poll itself.

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  • Anonymous

    Dingbat.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Yes, it is all a very sticky situation. Just ask Weiner’s keyboard.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    STFU.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    STFU.

  • ratiorad

    I saw Auster’s rejoinder to this post which, actually, led me to it, and I believe it’s seriously lacking on macro-level logic; much like Baldwin’s own argumentation for Weiner and, by extrapolation ( is that the wrong end of the antecedent?), himself.

    Auster, appropriately, has closed comments that he cherry picks, so that left me with a response on this site. There’s something apropos, if not ironic, about that relative to social and open-media argumentation, pro or con.

    On Baldwin, and Auster’s proxy or auxiliary defense of him, what we have is a celebrity arguing for the power of media and technology defining what is acceptable — the fact, basically that it exists or is happening proves that it is somehow fine.

     OK.

    But where does this logic lead, and how does it find its entelechy?

    Baldwin is moralizing — in a highly contradictory manner, mind — through culture (redundant?) and, more specifically or as spring-board, how we socialize through current technology.

    So, within that same reading — Baldwin’s defense and Auster’s defense of his personal life — how is it wrong to attack and define Weiner (or Baldwin) through these constructs, whether that be attacking them on FaceBook, this blog, Drudge or a national news program?

    For FaceBook and social media are narcissism bordering on solipsism that tap the idea of both celebrity and glorify the idea of being watched.

    Further, and to the real end-point, this side of tech is and has been inherent to culture just as ‘sexting’ is. The omega to the alpha, the yang to the yin, the 1 and the 0.

    Its a reductive and blinkered thought process, both from Baldwin and Auster, that leads either to think that some content is off-limits in the societal framework that Baldwin himself used t0 defend Weiner.

    The idea that we should err to the side of respectful decorum over a story that involves a public official’s cock is, yes, beneath parody, especially considering Baldwin’s own meltdowns.

    If technological interaction is all that defines this culture, why would there be a standard of conduct? According to Baldwin, there is no standard of actual conduct for those using the media to one side, yet there is immediately and inherently one remaining in using media tro judge or relay this conduct on a broader scale.

    Laughable.  Most especially because it’s so poorly-thought out.

    But then, Baldwin is someone that can’t find anything interesting to say — on mise ene scene, thematics, etc. — in five minute clips for TCM. An actor that doesn’t even understand film is commenting on social structure in 21st century America.

    It’s hilarious to one side, but also sad. Because of how appropriate it is as a microcosmic example of that same culture.

  • ratiorad

    As unstated or missed denouement, the point is, also, that as public figures people like Weiner and Baldwin — even as something like FaceBook helps the anonymous become less so, if only within internalized concepts of self-worth (oxymoronic tech and socialisation FTL) — strived for those positions, but would like to pretend that no responsibility comes with what they sought. Or, more simply, that being public has downsides that are inherent: something that so many celebrities find offensive.

    It’s a pathology that assumes they should be able to have a private life separate from the public, but, as with Baldwin’s tech argument, this is shown to be a largely chimeric dichotomy. If you’re famous, some things may be talked about that you wish were not, in a very public way.

    The argument, truthfully, is pure id: Weiner thinks, as does Baldwin, that he should be able to do what he wants without the public knowing, let alone judging. Behavior without consequence. Cause without effect. 

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