Congressman Anthony Weiner, my kind of politician

By R.K. Barry

I'm a big fan of Anthony Weiner, the Democrat who represents New York's 9th Congressional District. Crooks and Liars posted a clip of Congressman Weiner taking on both Sean Hannity and Michele Bachmann on Hannity's show on Fox. It was a debate about the budget and spending cuts and who is responsible for the debt and what we should do about it. We've heard this discussion before, so it wasn't the content as much as the style that impressed me.

For a long time I have felt that Democrats were not being tough enough in their squabbles with the right. The other side makes stuff up and Democrats all too often seem to nod politely and take it. But not Congressman Weiner. No, he gives as good as he gets, and I would suggest that other Democrats, if they expect to take these goons on with any degree of success, should go to school on the Congressman from NY's 9th.

Sad to say that politics is not a particularly civilized game. It never has been and that's not going to change any time soon.

Funny that Anthony Weiner and Jon Stewart were college roommates because Weiner seems to have missed the message that we should all be more civil in our debates. I'm not counseling rudeness. But I am suggesting that progressives not take any shit from the likes of Hannity and Bachmann. Make no mistake, it takes an immense amount of toughness and skill to stand in against the kind of nonsense that this radical right tag team is spewing here. And do note that all the rudeness was coming from Hannity.

I found it ironic and vaguely Freudian that Hannity suggested at one point in their exchange that Weiner "man up." It seems to me that this is exactly what Weiner was doing, and it pissed Hannity off to no end.

The clip says it all for me.

 

(Cross-posted from Lippmann's Ghost.)