Many people are mystified that a smart man like Anthony Weiner, who did his job well, and seemed to have everything, could blow it so spectacularly.\u00a0 But what he did had nothing to do with intelligence, or even with lust in its usual form. (One-handed surfing could have satisfied that need easily.)<\/p>\n
The New York Times<\/em><\/a> reports that Weiner knew he was being followed on Twitter by right-wingers suspicious of his activities and eager to catch him in the act.\u00a0 There’s evidence that the Congressman was playing a game of cat and mouse with them, and in an interview he had three weeks ago, Weiner spoke about the risks of social media.\u00a0\u00a0 Even after numerous political “sex” scandals, including the recent resignation of Congressman Christopher Lee, who was also caught sending a shirtless photo, Weiner did not curtail his activities.<\/p>\n People who think that this was “about” sex, another example of monogamy’s being outmoded, have it wrong.<\/p>\n Bill Clinton’s getting a blowjob in the White House was about sex.\u00a0 The most powerful man in the world was at heart an awkward adolescent who still could not believe that some pretty (albeit zaftig<\/em>) young woman really, really, wanted him, and he was going to get some!\u00a0 Right there in the Oval Office!\u00a0 Like something JFK would have done!\u00a0 He hadn’t asked for it.\u00a0 He knew it was wrong, but when confronted with this gift, despite the risks, he couldn’t say no.<\/p>\n In Weiner’s case, there was no oral sex.\u00a0 He’s a newlywed who was likely still getting laid at home, by a beautiful woman.\u00a0 According to one of his virtual companions, there was some “sex chat” on the telephone.\u00a0 Hardly close to the real thing.<\/p>\n Sex like drugs is a rush.\u00a0 But where was the sex in this scandal?\u00a0 And if not sex, what was he doing it for?\u00a0 He’s not excusing his behavior by claiming to have been drunk or high.\u00a0 He seems as bewildered as anyone.<\/p>\n The answer to the question “why” is simple. Danger<\/em> was the drug of choice.\u00a0 Weiner wasn’t pursuing women online in order to get off despite<\/em> the risk. He was getting off because <\/em>of the risk.\u00a0 Risking it was<\/em> the rush.\u00a0 Gambling is a recognized addiction.\u00a0\u00a0 It might have started off with just joking around and flirting, but at some point knowing “they” were watching, waiting for him to slip up, made the stakes higher, and the game a whole lot more interesting.\u00a0 You could lose everything with one click, but he kept on winning.<\/p>\n As he became even more known for his passionate political style and biting sound bites, there was more to lose and it was irresistible. \u00a0\u00a0Marriage and the very real possibility of achieving his goal of becoming the Mayor of New York City, added to the thrill of possibly destroying it all every single time his thumbs got itchy and he’d grab his phone.<\/p>\n But he was playing too well.\u00a0 His opponents couldn’t catch him. \u00a0He was too smart for an army of them.\u00a0 And that must have felt like cheating death itself.<\/p>\n This was even better than sex with a goddess who happened to be the love of his life.\u00a0\u00a0 Here he was risking even that<\/em>, risking his very existence, yet surviving and triumphing, again, and again and again.<\/p>\n Finally, like any gambler losing his streak, like any junkie who winds up on a slab, he screwed up.\u00a0\u00a0 It didn’t take one of his “conquests” setting him up.\u00a0 His own thumb betrayed him as he publicly tweated the infamous underwear shot. Was it on purpose?\u00a0 Maybe, in the same sense that someone hovering by a cliff long enough, will eventually slip.\u00a0 Why they were hovering in the first place is the question.<\/p>\n And then he tried one last bluff — telling the press, he was hacked.\u00a0 But it was over.\u00a0 His heart wasn’t in it. \u00a0\u00a0He knew he was done. \u00a0No finger wagging with a definitive, “I did not have sexts with that woman.”\u00a0 Just a bewildered man, who knew enough not to ask his wife to accompany him when he stepped out to meet the press.<\/p>\n Some people worry about his mental state.\u00a0 They’re right to do so.\u00a0 Donald Manes<\/a> was once upon the time Queens Borough President. He was accused of corruption and killed himself while under indictment.\u00a0 Manes may have been bi-polar.\u00a0 Bi-polar people are most at risk of suicide after a manic episode when they come back down to earth and see the consequences of their actions.\u00a0 Weiner isn’t bi-polar.\u00a0 He’s never been accused of the type of graft that Manes was indicted for. But like Manes, he is now, as a result of his actions facing a different future than the one he was looking at yesterday.\u00a0 Weiner is a successful man, and successful people often aren’t very skilled at failure.\u00a0 It hits them hard.<\/p>\n This isn’t about whether or not he should step down.\u00a0 I leave that to the chattering classes and people at the water-cooler or the dinner table.\u00a0 I would suggest that those who are his friends, however betrayed and angry they might feel, show him a little compassion, and those of us watching on the sidelines still snickering, we might find better uses for our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people are mystified that a smart man like Anthony Weiner, who did his job well, and seemed to have everything, could blow it so spectacularly.\u00a0 But what he did had nothing to do with intelligence, or even with lust in its usual form. (One-handed surfing could have satisfied that need easily.) The New York … Continue reading Better Than Sex — What Weiner Really Got Out of It<\/span>