When Hillary Decided Anthony Weiner Was a Liability, All of His Democratic Friends in Politics and the Media Suddenly Found Out All Sorts of interesting Things

An alleged affair, not an extra-marital one (I don't think that's the allegation, anyway), occurring before his marriage, and happening with an employee nearly two decades his junior.

This would seem to me to fall into the large category of things I call "Not a Scandal," and indeed, not even particularly interesting. I'm not exactly shocked that an unmarried older man and his unmarried younger employee might have found an attraction to each other. It happens.

A lot.

This is why I really need to begin a business and start hiring interns. All my eggs are in this particular basket.

But you didn't come here to hear about my plans and schemes.

I am curious as to what makes this "troubling," exactly.

[Former staffers] described the lengthy relationship between the pair as a badly-kept open secret, with the two openly flirting and behaving unlike any other staffers in the office for a period they say began well before late 2006–when Ms. Azaria left Mr. Weiner’s payroll–and continuing after she returned in mid-2008. (In 2006, Ms. Azaria would have been turning 24 years old, while Mr. Weiner would have been turning 42.) The allegedly unprofessional behavior made some staffers uncomfortable.

“You’d have to be an idiot to not know what was going on,” said one ex-aide, who, like the majority of others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid damaging his relationship with Mr. Weiner and their former colleague. “It was a known secret in the office,” another said.

The close relationship was especially striking, sources said, in contrast to the way Mr. Weiner behaved with others.

“It was pretty clear they had a different relationship than everyone else,” said one source, describing the behavior–openly flirting and largely behaving unlike Mr. Weiner was with any other staffer–as continuing into 2008, when Mr. Weiner began dating his current wife. “If you worked for Weiner, you were lucky if he refused to acknowledge your existence. Those less fortunate got called ‘c**ksucker,’” said another. “So [their] rapport was exceptional.”

Well, that is kind of interesting: If you're not sleeping with Anthony Weiner, for him to not call you a c**ksucker would be an indication of an "exceptional rapport."

While relationships between staffers and their bosses–especially in the incestuous world of politics–are not unheard of, this pairing nonetheless suggests that Mr. Weiner was not completely honest when he insisted his personal proclivities were completely constrained to his private life.

Uh, this stupid.

“I think the notion of a member of Congress having a relationship with his staffer does not fit the bill of somebody making smart decisions about how he’s running an office and how he’s going to carry on in public life,” said one source. “It is a thing when the boss is having a relationship with a staffer and attempting to keep it a secret from anyone. That’s not appropriate and I think not something that represents smart, sound judgement.”

You're dumb. Unmarried people are unmarried people and are not required to submit Certificates of Tapping at the local city hall.

Although, in this case, it seems they pretty much did just that.

The one thing that's troubling to me is the fact that he apparently flaunted this in front of his other staffers, which is not something an adult does. The desire to let the world know far and wide that I'm Tappin' This is a juvenile impulse -- it recalls to mind eighth graders walking around with hands in the other's back pocket -- and suggests that Weiner is a state of arrested sexual development in which sex is largely about personal validation -- "scoring," racking up those ego points, telling Hero Stories -- and has not developed far beyond an eighth grade maturity level.

For example, among the Highly Obvious Actions the pair allegedly took to advertise their affair is this:

A third pointed to the woman using a vacation photo of the pair together as her screensaver.

Joint vacation with the boss? Happens every day!

But we already sort of knew he was pretty sexually immature, didn't we?

Wow. Who knew the Democratic Liberal Progressives were so horribly uptight and sexually retrograde. It's the twenty-tens, baby. Update.

What a bunch of sexually censurious riven-by-hang-ups pearl-clutchers.

#WarOnWomen, too. We must support women's sexual choices. Even when -- especially when -- those choices are like, "Ew. I can't even."

No One Who Has an Affair With a Very Junior Twentysomething Staffer Is Fit for Executive Office: hannoverfist writes--

That's funny considering Shillary's husband had an affair with a staffer.

I honestly didn't even think of that.

Incidentally... It is now reported that this alleged affair was notorious and obvious, but apparently Bob Filner's rampage of molestation was a tightly kept secret that No One Knew About.

posted by Ace at 05:12 PM

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