A Triumph For New York City

Anthony Weiner

On this 12th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever perpetrated on American soil, our thoughts, hopes and dreams inevitably turn to New York City, as they must every year on this date. Twelve years ago the people of New York reacted with courage and character. And they did so again this year.

They rejected the bid of Anthony Weiner to be mayor.

Twelve years ago, the Democratic and Republican mayoral primary scheduled for September 11 had to be postponed. Yesterday’s primary went off as scheduled and from our nonresident perspective, who lost is more important than who won.

Ever since the antics of Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and so many others, as well as the revelation of President John Kennedy’s sexual adventurism, there has been an active public debate on the relevance of a politician’s private life in the performance of his public duties. And there is an argument to be made in separating the two.

But former Representative Weiner isn’t it.

For one thing, Weiner himself went public, sharing way too much of his personal life – and anatomy – with virtual buddies he wished to impress.

Far more important, though, is that even after his public disgrace and forced resignation from Congress, he was still doing it, even as he planned his political resurrection through his mayoral bid. This is a matter of judgment, and what is a more important trait in a political leader than good judgment?

During the campaign, every time Weiner was confronted by a voter with what he had done, and done repeatedly, he tried to make the privacy and separation from public life argument. This does not fly, because he has already demonstrated that when everything is on the line – his career, his reputation, his marriage – he cannot or will not prevent himself from pursuing his weird, kinky and downright creepy sexual predilection. In fact, despite his lip service, there has never been any real or genuine-seeming indication that Wiener gets that his behavior is completely unacceptable.

Project this lack of judgment and impulse control into any of the myriad crisis situations any chief executive must confront and it is impossible to conclude that this is the man for the job.

Fortunately, the Democratic primary voters showed far better judgment than their candidate, giving him only about five percent of the total. They were a little more generous to disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer, while still concluding that a man who could not control himself with hookers was not exactly the right one to be comptroller of the most important city in the United States.

As he was leaving his election “party” after giving his concession speech, Wiener was immortalized by television station NY-1 “flipping the bird” to the media.

Voters watching this must have been gratified to have their wisdom so quickly confirmed.

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