Weiner Makes Lewd Comments to Female Reporter, But It’s Ok Since He’s Liberal

If you’ve followed the ordeal of Rep. Anthony Weiner  and his recent Twitter issues, the story seems to get more bizarre by the day. Regardless of what you think happened, on Wednesday a rather sexist dialogue occurred in the U.S. Capitol between Rep. Weiner and Emily Miller, a senior editor at the Washington Times.

Until the Drudge Report picked up this story on Thursday, only a few conservative blogs even noticed.

The entire conversation was recorded and transcribed. According to Miller’s comments on the Washington Times website:

I saw the congressman walk out the the glass doors that lead off the House floor to the Speaker’s Lobby, an area reserved only for the media to interview Members as they go to and from votes.  As he walked into the hallway, I quickly turned to approach him. To my shock, he stopped directly in front of me and offered to answer questions. He stood a mere six inches away from me while he rebutted our questions, while bizarrely making repeated penis jokes.

Miller tweeted her shock that a standing member of Congress, a married man who is already facing a scandal for potentially sexually inappropriate behavior, was making lewd jokes directed at her. Per the transcript:

Weiner: We don’t know where the photograph came from. We don’t know for sure what’s on it. We don’t know for sure if it was manipulated. If it was taken out of one place and dropped something else. And I’m going to let this firm get to the bottom of all that. Jon Stewart might have actually been right last night.

Miller: Are there pictures out there of you have undressed? Do you have pictures that exist?

Weiner: You know this is part of the problem with the way in which this has progressed and one of the reasons that I was,  perhaps — you’ll forgive me — a little bit stiff yesterday…. [laughter as Weiner smirks at a male reporter]

Reporter: We’ve used the word firm, we’ve used the word…

Weiner: Can I ask, is there a weiner joke that hasn’t been used in this context?

Miller: You’re making them all, though…

Weiner: I’m making them all?

Miller: You’re making all those….

Weiner: I would refer you to any of the coverage of this case, the jokes kind of write themselves.

Is that an appropriate way to respond to reporter asking legitimate questions about a news story? Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but should a member of Congress be making lewd jokes in public at all?

Why has no one (meaning liberal women) called Weiner out for his response to Miller? Under what circumstances is it appropriate to respond to a professional woman in that way? How is this not harassment?

In fact, the only mention in the ladyblog world is Jessica Grose at Double X pulling the out the feminists’ card from the 90s in reacting to Bill Clinton:

Why didn’t this salacious, potentially career-destroying story generate the same insta-circus as “Craigslist Congressman” Chris Lee’s beefcake photos or any one of the many GOP sex scandals over the last several years? It’s due in part to the journalistic torpor of the long holiday weekend, but—let’s be honest—it’s also because he’s an outspoken liberal. And that’s not a bad thing.

Excuse me? A sitting member of Congress made wildly inappropriate comments to a reporter, which were recorded in front of other press members, and a blog that supposedly covers “women’s issues,” including sexual harassment, doesn’t think this is a big deal?

However, Weiner’s comments got worse:

Weiner: We don’t know that it’s a police matter. I got spam yesterday….

Reporter: How can it not be?

Weiner: How can it not be? Very easily. Every day all of us get spam. Every day all of us have people responding to us, ‘“ can’t believe you’re sending me this.”

Reporter: You’re a Member of Congress

Weiner: I’m a Member of Congress. I’m also a citizen. There’s nothing official about someone sending… by the way….

Miller: You’re standing in the Speaker’s Lobby, having 40, 75 reporters around you. If this is an issue of the Capitol Police, if this is….

Weiner: Why?

Miller: Because you’re a Member of Congress standing in this Capitol…

Weiner: But a Member of Congress doesn’t mean when someone sends a piece of spam to my account, doesn’t make it a federal offense

Miller: But this whole issue could go away….

Weiner: I am trying to find out, and I think I have taken steps to do so. If you’ll forgive me, I know we’re now in the weeds of a particular issue. If you can take a step back– not literally– you can step as close as you like.

The comment from Weiner sounds like a horrible pick up line that a drunk guy would use at a bar. Weiner has been in Congress since 1999 and represents a part of New York City. He knows how to interact with the media.

Why has no one picked up on this? While the bruhaha over whether his Twitter account was hacked or if he got caught sending sexually explicit pictures is newsworthy, to me this is a worst offense. The fact that Weiner was willing to make these kinds of comments towards a woman in public in front of recorders and cameras makes him look that more culpable in the original scandal.

And his excuse that he’s just making jokes about his last name doesn’t carry water. I understand name jokes. When you are named “Adrienne,” you face a lifetime of Rocky jokes. After a certain point — generally junior high — you become desensitized to it. Even in times of high stress or anger, reiterating jokes about your name is the absolute last place that you go.

As Weiner digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself by not answering basic questions or asking the FBI to investigate the alleged hacking of U.S. Congressman (security risks, anyone?), reporters are digging in his past and pulling out some not very savory things.

In the DC world, there’s a post-9/11 Vanity Fair article that has become legendary about the partying habits of Hill Staffers and interns. It’s used as an example for interns on how not to act. Guess who’s in the article? The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait dug it up:

The next day, New York’s Anthony Weiner finds the time to hunt down Diana’s E-mail address. He writes that he hopes they might meet again. Diana is overwhelmed that he’s managed to think of her on a day that must be heavy with import and emotional intensity. Last night he mentioned that he’d be going to Manhattan to inspect the World Trade Center wreckage with the president. They’d be traveling together on Air Force One.

…

She has left Anthony Weiner dangling, after he E-mailed her that she should come and visit his office “in person.” “I thought that was kind of cheesy,” sniffs Diana.

At the very best, this man appears to act like a frat boy around women and has a long documented history in DC of this behavior. However, it’s ok to let “boys be boys” when that person in question is a good liberal.

Image: Emily Miller