Anthony Weiner (by Marc Faletti on Flickr)

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has appropriately called for an ethics investigation. His mentor and predecessor, Senator Chuck Schumer has let Rep. Anthony Weiner deal with his own crisis management. The normally wooden Harry Reid dissed Weiner the hardest:

“I know Congressman Weiner,” Reid said. “I wish there was someway I could defend him but I can’t.”

Reid declined repeated questions about whether or not Weiner should resign. Reid again dodged when asked by TPM what he tell Weiner to do if he asked him.

“Call somebody else,” Reid said.

via Reid On Weiner: ‘I Wish I Could Defend Him But I Can’t’ | TPMDC.

DCCC officials and a former DNC chair have called for Weiner to resign ASAP. About the only guy in House leadership who initially defended Weiner in this whole saga of lewd tweets had this to say June 3rd:

“I told him that he needs to handle this and he needed to give the facts accurately to the public,” [House Minority whip Steny] Hoyer said.

Rep. Weiner is definitely in some political trouble. What it seems like to me is that Weiner lied to everyone who would have his back after his mis-tweet (wtf) resulted in him being caught sex-ting while representing. Sources say that the Clintons are furious with Weiner for his behavior and exceedingly awkward attempts to cover up his behavior. Both Clintons are close to his wife Huma Abedin who is a long time aide (since the 1990′s) for Secretary Clinton. I would hope Bill is able to temper his anger with some humility borne of his own numerous public infidelities, ill-advised denials and fumbling admissions from his time as Governor of Arkansas, Presidential candidate and President. Secretary Clinton seems to be fully supportive of  her aide while Abedin deals with her husbands extra-martial sexual exhibitionism. Also, Weiner seems to be without much political capital. (Unlike many members of congress, Weiner is not rolling the dough nor is he on the power committees).

Weiner’s wife is staying with him and expecting their first child. His constituents, overall, value his continued representation as polls show. He still has the mandate of the majority of the people who elected him to office. He can probably win some back over the remainder of his term. So despite assertions that sex-ting while married constitutes an irreparable violation of what the Atlantic’s Josh Green and now James Fallows call the “fiduciary duty” to staff and supporters or a loss of “respect of [his] constituents” (as asserted by  Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa)), the political career of Rep. Anthony Weiner is not dead yet.

Weiner’s behavior, however embarrassing, is not illegal nor did he neglect his professional duties (he didn’t go AWOL on his constituency like former SC Governor Mark Sanford or use illegal lobby connections to cover up his infidelities like former NV Senator John Ensign). Of course some heavy handed, tasteless political hacks have put out a web ad against Weiner and the RNC has sent fundraising e-mails lambasting Weiner and goading Democrats who have received money from Weiner’s campaign to turn the funds over to charity (some have complied). Representatives Dumping Weiner’s campaign contributions is a step that is too pious for my tastes. Did Weiner trade nude photos and sext women for those monies? Does the cash have cooties on it now? Have Rep. Eric Cantor and other Republicans unequivocally demanded the same of anyone who received money from Ensign, Schwarzaneger, Craig, Vitter, Foley or Sanford?

The real and unresolved issues with Weiner are three fold in my opinion:

• Referral for Prosecution: If the results of ethics investigation result in a referral to the Department of Justice if the panel reveals him to have broken the law (which seems very unlikely)
• Unintentional Sexual Harassment Allegations: If in the process of sexting from his capital hill office or community office he unintentionally sexual harassed his staff or House staff (say they witnessed him engaging in said activities or had access to his online accounts and saw certain messages) then that could result in real damages being sought.
• House Ethics Rules violation: The House rules do allow for some sort of reprimand or censure based upon decorum not fitting of a member of congress, so some sort of penalty will be added to his record.

The 1st seems unlikely in my opinion. The second, who knows. The last seems to be very likely.

On the left, disappointingly,  reactionary behavior has ruled the day.

Cenk Uygur was on MSNBC yesterday proposing that Democrats should follow his 3 step “Fight Back” plan for crisis management:

• defend (protect Rep. Weiner at all costs),
• attack (eg they should have jumped on the John Ensign or Larry Craig scandals and demanded immediate resignation), and
• counter attack (say look, his was illegal and point at Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) still holding office).

This is a generally a bad strategy when someone actually did something wrong all by their lonesome. Anthony Weiner’s a grown man who made some very personal adult mistakes. He can defend himself even though he shouldn’t. He appropriately (finally) came clean and apologized to everyone publicly. His behavior is indefensible, but it is not unforgivable.

Democrats who are quick to demand Weiner’s resignation are foolishly setting a harsh precedent when it comes to scandals. People don’t usually demand the janitor, travelling salesperson, engineer or accountant who’ve been caught cheating on their  spouse to resign. In addition, Democrats have learned nothing from Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and others: the best guy for your politics may not be the best guy to his wife. I would definitely bet there are some more folks in their caucus who may be cheating on their spouses or engaging in sexual behavior that is embarrassing when brought to light. Pro golfer Tiger Wood’s mistresses and Weiner’s sexting counterparts Megan Broussard and Lisa Weiss prove that it doesn’t take much to get an ex-lover to open up and tell their side of the story complete with the artifacts (clothing, emails, images and texts) of their dalliances. There will probably be more humans who happen to be members of congress who get caught in perfectly legal, lewd and adulterous behavior. It may not be so convenient for them to cast aside more prominent members of their caucus the next time a scandal arises, but now they will be judged as hypocrites if they do not react to future scandals in the same way. If Weiner weathers this, which I believe he will, and stays out of trouble (time will tell) will Rep. Schwartz never work with him again because she thinks he should have resigned?

Censured Rep. Charlie Rangel is the only Dem to publicly rebuf calls from Democrats and Republicans for Weiner to resign. I guess you got the friends you got.

On Monday, Weiner returns to the Hill and some of the circus will return with him. At least he will have no illusions about who his allies really are. Instead of currying favor with members of his caucus who are quick to discard him, he can focus on the people who still support him: his wife, his family, his constituency and his staffers. He has three down and one to go: don’t quit, say sorry, come clean and work hard.

UPDATED: Beginning a private social conversation with a 17 year old girl is completely out of bounds. Weiner is taking a leave of absence.It seems he didn’t truly come clean at his last presser so each time he holds a presser and more info comes out, the less people will trust him.

I am sure the GOP’s obstructionism has got him wound up, but even more so his own party’s unnecessarily slow maneuvering in the Senate has got to be burning him up as well.

The Republican Party is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry,” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) charged on the House floor. When Republican Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.) objected to the accusation and took the extraordinary step of asking that Weiner’s “words be taken down,” Weiner pushed back.

“You really don’t want to go here, Mr. Lungren,” Weiner said. Asking that words be taken down is a move on the House floor that is rarely made and carries great weight.

Weiner, after a pause, asked to have his words withdrawn and said he’d substitute new ones. “Make no mistake about it. Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry,” Weiner clarified.

via Weiner: GOP Is ‘Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Insurance Industry’.

The Speaker recently assured her freshman lawmakers and other vulnerable members of her caucus that a vote on immigration reform is not looming despite a renewed push from the White House and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The House will not move on the issue until the upper chamber passes a bill, Pelosi told the members.

But according to Democrats who have spoken to Pelosi, the Speaker has expanded that promise beyond immigration, informing Democratic lawmakers that the Senate will have to move first on a host of controversial issues before she brings them to the House floor.

“The Speaker has told members in meetings that we’ve done our jobs,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “And that next year the Senate’s going to have to prove what it can accomplish before we go sticking our necks out any further.”

via Speaker Pelosi to shield vulnerable members from controversial votes – TheHill.com.

I take it Pelosi is tired of delivering a bill more than liked by progressives just to be filtered, distilled and diluted by Committee Chairs like Max Baucus  to benefit those people in one of the least populous states in the United States. I am sure Clyburn is not happy to whip up the votes to pass every bill he is asked to deliver, in time to get pat on the back from President Obama just to have Durbin fall short in the Senate. I am definitely sure Weiner doesn’t enjoy Rockefeller, Schumer, Wyden being replaced in health care negotiations with dishonest brokers Snowe, Collins, Grassley, Enzi and Lieberman who demand compromises they will never support.  I am also sure the majority of house democrats don’t like horse trading with blue dogs to get Obama’s cost bending, Public Option bill passed just to find out it isn’t the Public Option or cost bending that is desired, but not required by the President right now.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), among the most vocal supporters of the public option, said it would be unfair to blame Lieberman for its apparent demise. Feingold said that responsibility ultimately rests with President Barack Obama and he could have insisted on a higher standard for the legislation.

via Lieberman expresses regret to colleagues over healthcare tension – TheHill.com.

No, sorry Feingold, the campaign and the speech before joint session of congress laid out the real goals and requirements. After both support for health care reform with a public option increased. Congressman Anthony Weiner was hitting talk shows like a mad man, Democratic senators involved in health care reform were almost no where to be found. Instead of focusing on the millions of under-insured or those bankrupted by insurance fine print, they focused on the uninsured (a public relations loser).  Yes, senate PR and strategy (internal and external) are what I am mad about. Climate Change, Gitmo, 9/11/Gitmo trials and Health Care: Republicans got out front and manufactured scandals and spectacles at every turn to push Democratic message off the media radar and spook blue dogs. Pelosi and Clyburn run a tight ship, Reid and Durbin don’t. I am pretty sure Obama knows this and this is why the pressure is just to get a deal done. The White House knows Reid has been beaten. Obama wanted a public option, but he isn’t a senator anymore. Which is good, because under Reid he wouldn’t have any power anyway.

This bill will fall short of what I can imagine, but its a foot in the door. Its time for democratic senators to start kicking a bit harder to improve upon this after (hopefully) it passes.

President Obama said it plainly enough:

Obama: ‘This is a Health Care Bill, Not an Abortion Bill’ | TPMTV

Why is Stupak so adamant on using the Health Care bill to fight the battle against reproductive rights and abortion access? Well, he’s in the ultra-relgious group known as “The Family” aka “The Fellowship” aka C Street.

Juxtapose the reality of Senator Franken with how the media and his current colleagues across the aisle regarded Franken’s successful bid for the US Senate.

Maria Bartiromo wants to know why Congressman Weiner didn't march up to Lyndon Johnson and demand his Medicare card, right after Truman

On MSNBC Live, Carlos Watson leads a panel on health care with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, Washington Post’s Ezra Klein and Congressman Anthony Weiner. Bartiromo proves she has no business debating health care with anyone as she doesn’t even know the basics about the health care systems we have in place in this country.

Watson doesn’t intercede and mention that the 44 year old congressman is not eligible for Medicare. Thankfully, Weiner and Ezra Klein (not in this clip) both make that point during the segment.

Updated: I have appended this post with the an additional clip from MSNBC.com

The question that needs to be answered before Rep. Weiner’s question can be addressed: how much does a health care routine really cost? Is there a list that says $Y dollars is the cost for treatment X? We know our co-pay, our pre-tax pay check deduction but we really don’t know the pre-tax premium contributions of our employers or “employee group”. Health care is a service we buy, through a non-transparent market, without any broker on our behalf and then hope that whatever deal we implicitly agreed to works for us and our provider when our health goes bad. That isn’t a free market nor is it an equitable one. Private payer to provider market distortions are exposed when you compare “full billed charges” to Medicare payouts to providers:

…a survey by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, which detailed a series of exorbitant physician charges. The survey examined out-of-network bills where — as opposed to in-network services — contracts do not exist between the provider and insurer. Also known as full-billed charges, it’s what the uninsured face every time they see a doctor.

In some cases, patients received charges 34 times what Medicare pays for the same procedure in the same location, the AHIP survey found.

For example, one doctor billed $4,500 for an office visit when Medicare would have paid just $134. Another doctor billed $14,400 for removal of a gallbladder when Medicare would have paid $656. And a hip replacement cost $40,000 when Medicare would have paid $1,558.

via Health Articles | A Little Haggling Might Pay Off at the Hospital | Miller-McCune Online Magazine.