On Monday's NBC Today, following a report on the latest fallout from the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, Hillary Clinton sycophant Andrea Mitchell fretted over the impact of the controversy on the former secretary of state: "This is terribly painful....this is getting to the point where it is really splashing up against the Clintons because it's almost unavoidable that people are making comparisons to the way Hillary Clinton handled Bill Clinton's difficulties in the 1992 campaign." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
On July 24, it was Today making that comparison between Wiener and Clinton, with chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd observing: "But you can't help but remember, [Weiner's wife] Huma [Abedin] works for Hillary Clinton. Is that her political role model? Is that her political role model as a spouse? Is that where she's getting her advice? Well, we know what Hillary Clinton did as a political spouse in the same situation."
Anthony Weiner
The situations involving disgraced and relapsed former Congressman Anthony Weiner and Ben Quayle, who hasn't been in politics for about a year, are very analogous. Just ask Katie Glueck at the Politico. Oh, and the the Weiner situation is also very analogous to that of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who has returned $21,000 worth of gifts he should never have taken from a businessperson. Just ask Dana Milbank at the Washington Post.
There appears to be some kind of unwritten rule that you can't attempt to analyze a Democrats' scandalous involvement without dragging a Republican into the mix, no matter how distant or irrelevant the connection. First, let's look at Glueck with Quayle and Weiner (bolds are mine throughout this post):
As NewsBusters has been reporting, the media these days seem to see everything through the prism of what helps and hinders Hillary Clinton's path to the White House.
On CBS's Face the Nation Sunday, Bob Schieffer said Huma Abedin, by standing by her disgraced husband Anthony Weiner, was "doing Hillary Clinton no favors whatsoever if Hillary Clinton is planning to run for president" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
George Will made an observation on ABC's This Week Sunday that shouldn't have evoked laughter from his fellow panelists and host.
"If these two people, [Mayor Bob] Filner in San Diego and [Anthony] Weiner here, were Republicans, this would be a part of a lot of somber sociology in the media about the Republican war on women" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
There was a very funny moment at the end of Friday's McLaughlin Group on PBS when the entire panel unanimously predicted that Anthony Weiner would drop out of the New York City mayor's race.
This included syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan, the Economist's David Rennie, U.S. News & World Report's Mort Zuckerman, host John McLaughlin, and quite surprisingly Newsweek/Daily Beast's Eleanor Clift (video follows with commentary):
Bill Maher on Friday attacked the media – particularly MSNBC’s Chris Matthews – for hypocrisy concerning how they handle sex scandals based on whether or not they like the politician involved.
The HBO Real Time host correctly pointed out that the Anthony Weiner-bashing Matthews absolutely adored John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton who were both involved in far worse sexcapades than the New York City mayoral candidate (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Is nothing sacred? Next week's cover of New Yorker magazine features a drawing of disgraced mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner straddling the Empire State Building with the top spire obviously representing his genitals:
Artist John Cuneo explained how he came up with the idea:
On FNC's Hannity last night, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell teed off on the media's effusive reaction to President Obama's remarks last Friday about race and the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case.
Various journalists had described the President's speech as "extraordinary," "beautiful," and "a symphony." Bozell had a different word: "dishonest." (Video and partial transcript below the jump.)
Now that former Democratic Congressman and current mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has been caught, again, sending sexually explicit texts to women, the hosts of ABC's Good Morning America decided to ask the important question: What is cheating?
Regarding the extremely graphic messages Weiner sent, reporter Linsey Davis wondered, "Is texting really cheating?...Do explicit E-mails, texts and tweets, like the ones Weiner sent even count as cheating?" GMA weatherman Sam Champion saw this question as a type of public service, lecturing, "It's a good conversation. I think a lot of people have had that talk lately." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
High-strung actor Alec Baldwin considered running for New York City mayor this year.
Now he's giving advice to sext-obsessed mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner writing Thursday, "Weiner should quit, walk away, let some time wash over his reversals and re-emerge, another day, to attempt some future race for public office."
A very misleading sentence appeared in David Caruso's story this evening at the Associated Press about Nik Richie, the blogger who broke the story of disgraced former congressman and now-New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's latest sexting escapade at his "The Dirty" web site. It certainly supports the notion that tagging the wire service with its "the Administration's Press" nickname is not at all out of line.
Note that the time stamp on Caruso's story is 7 p.m ET tonight, a mere three hours ago. Here is the deceptive statement: "Richie declined to reveal the woman's identity or put her in contact with the Associated Press, saying he had agreed to protect her anonymity." What rubbish. Her name is already known. Caruso and the AP are deciding on their own to withhold it, for obvious reasons which will be revealed after the jump.
In a Tuesday evening editorial, the New York Times called for former Democratic Congressman and current New York City mayoral candidate to withdraw from the race. What the Times failed to acknowledge -- and should have -- is the critical role it has played in enabling his still-alive comeback attempt from the 2011 sexting scandal which led to his resignation.
On April 10, the Times published an 8,000-plus word item by Jonathan Van Meter which appeared in its April 14 Sunday magazine. Its only conceivable purpose was to hasten Weiner's political rehabilitation. At the time, Kyle Drennen at NewsBusters noted that it was dutifully "touted" on the NBC, CBS, and ABC morning shows. It doesn't take long during a re-read of that Times piece to arrive at several bitterly ironic passages, as will be seen after the jump.