Weiners and Santorum: A Yucky Day

I admit, I was one of those "delusional liberals" because I found the initial aspects of WeinerGate - which you all know is the accusations that U.S. Representative Anthony Wiener has been having sexually explicit photo and text exchanges with fans of his via various social media sites - to be super suspicious.  Here's why:

-Breitbart.  If you want to have any integrity, regardless of what side of the political fence you fall on, the default position when Breitbart breaks anything is to be skeptical.  He plays fast and loose with the truth, period.

-Weiner's reaction.  At the time his weird response to all this made it seem almost - as crazy as it may sound - that he was somehow punking Breitbart.  Because Weiner is a smart man, and a media-savvy one.  I figured that  the "bungled" response to the allegations must be part of something...smarter? 

But now it's looking a lot more like Weiner has had multiple sexual exchanges with women online, and I'm waiting to watch his press conference, which apparently has been hijacked by Breitbart himself for some reason I can't figure out whatsoever.  Can people do that?  "Oh, I just happened to be here, I'm on the podium now."  Even if he isn't lying this time, he's still a dick.

All this drama aside, I don't understand why this is a "scandal."  It's a scandal when a homophobic "family values" candidate on the right is caught betraying the values he attempts to enforce on others.   It's the hypocrisy, not the act itself.  I don't care if politicians cheat on their wives when they're not trying to impose their own hypocritical morality, period.  It has no bearing on their ability to advocate for their constituents if they are not holding themselves to a different standard than they would the people they claim to represent.

Having just listened to Weiner's press conference, I was surprised at how honest it was.  There was some of the expected lines about how he's deeply hurt his family and whatnot, but he didn't claim sex addiction or substance abuse, and said repeatedly he takes responsibilty for doing something dumb.  That alone is a pretty radical act for a congressman.

However, am I am absolutely befuddled as to why male politicans keep doing shit like this.  I am generally a subscriber to the theory that the vast majority of what we consider gender differences are the result of socialization.  I'm also a woman who really likes sex and has taken some minor risks to get the kind of sex that I want.  So I get horniness.  But I don't understand why, time after time, male politicians are able to so repeatedly risk their careers (and marriages, I guess) in pursuit of such banal sexual encounters.

Is it that it takes a certain kind of fucked-up personality to be a politician in the first place?  A sense of entitlement and an an aversion to risk-reward analysis?  A desire for validation?  All of the above?  Sometimes, a tiny, not-particularly-feminist voice in my head wonders if male sexuality and the male sex drive really is that different from women.  Is the pull for gratification is just so strong that in the moment, it's worth risking everything?

Then again, it's just as likely that the fact that male politicians keep getting caught in illicit encounters has less to do with their gender and more to do with the fact that we just have a lot more male politicians than female.  And we hold female politicians to a higher standard of scrutiny. 

As a fan of Weiner, I'm bummed that he handled this whole thing so poorly, up to this point, although finally telling the truth and refusing to resign, characterizing this as something between him and his wife and his family, is absolutely the right tack to take.  But as a fan I'm really disappointed that he was this stupid.  As a fangirl, I kinda enjoy the scandalous shots.  Even Breitbart had to admit that this skinny guy has a great body and apparently, quite a package.  The most unsexy thing about this is that he was still using an AOL account in the 2000s. 

To make today more disheartening to liberals, Rick Santorum, that frothy mix of you know the drill, announced his candidacy.  I'm gonna go have another glass of wine.


I'd like to note that I didn't use a Weiner pun, not even once.