“Onanistic, pathetically immature”
by digby
Hendrik Hertzberg has written a great piece on the Weiner scandal that you must read in its entirety. He talks about why it was different and why it created such a stir despite the fact that Weiner’s main sin was in the documentation not the (fairly banal) acts themselves. Very interesting stuff.
But I’d like to comment on this specific observation:
Weiner’s sins, being wholly online, basically onanistic, pathetically “immature,” and totally without direct fleshly carnality, are literally ridiculous. They lack the swaggering macho that pushes more traditional, arguably crueler male transgressions – having affairs, whoring, fathering children out of wedlock – into the comparatively (though only comparatively) safer territory of “boys will be boys” and “men are like that.”
One more factor that comes to mind: the particular media addictions of the political class. I suspect that, unlike normal people, a preponderance of that class – commentators, political reporters and editors, operatives, “strategists,” aides, news producers, etc. – spends several hours of every day watching cable-news television (or having it drone and flicker in the background), reading political blogs, sending and receiving e-mails about the latest political uproar, and talking about same to other members of the same class, on the phone or face to face. Actual office-holding politicians don’t necessarily have the time for all that, but they live inside the bubble it creates. The ambient atmosphere is one of constant overexcitement, hysteria, and sometimes unbearable tension, all focussed on the story of the day. That may be a reason why the protagonists of political scandals are dispatched more quickly and more mercilessly than in the past.
I think there’s something to that. I live in the same atmosphere to a certain extent and I know that it craves excitement and stimulation. But the Weiner scandal exposes the real essence of the problem with beltway sex scandals and it’s more than that. Indeed the words Herzberg uses to describe Weiner are the exact words I’d use to describe the press when one of these silly tabloid scandals erupt: “onanistic, pathetically immature.” The juvenile glee with which they pore over the most salacious details is best described as Beavis and Butthead go to Washington
It must also be noted that the reason they seem to do this much more toward Democratic politicians is because they eagerly gobble the nasty little tid-bits they are fed by the likes of Andrew Breitbart or Drudge and his minions. (A notable exception was Mark Foley whose scandal was broken by gay activists who weren’t afraid to pull that string.)That right wing noise machine (which also takes infantile delight in “dirty” behavior) is what propels these scandals into obsessions and feeds that tabloid cable energy.
It is no surprise to me that the nepotistic tribute hire, Luke Russert, seems to have made his bones (no pun intended) on this story. Weiner’s sin, with all its trendy Facebookie-twittergasm was a virtual scandal fed by online vandal Andrew Breitbart. Russert’s vacuous smirk was the perfect representation of the modern, virtual kewl kid ouvre.
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