New York Times Tells Weiner to Call It Quits

After his latest sexting scandal erupted, The New York Times has stated unequivocally that former Congressman Anthony Weiner should quit the race for New York City mayor and deal with his problems out of the public limelight.

The July 23 editorial, titled “Mr. Weiner and the Elusive Truth” is blunt. Instead of closing ranks behind Weiner, the paper has announced the end of any support it may have had for the troubled Democrat.

Saying that someday “the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told,” the paper goes on to state that whatever the truth is, it should be handled in private.

“In the meantime,” the editorial board says, “the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.”

The editorial next recounts the last two years of Weiner’s sexting scandals and points out that “the timing here matters” because the newest scandal went on many months after the initial controversy that forced him to quit Congress. Weiner, the paper notes, has again claimed it was “all behind him” and that the voters of New York City should give him a second chance. The Times, however, is not in a forgiving mood.

Weiner’s behavior, the paper says, “speaks to a familiar but repellent pattern of misleading and evasion. It’s up to Mr. Weiner if he wants to keep running, to count on voters to forgive and forget and hand him the keys to City Hall. But he has already disqualified himself.”

After admitting some sympathy for Weiner’s wife, the editorial says that the sexual troubles the couple have are no longer private, because the pair have made it New York’s “business by plunging into a political campaign” where it is now rehashed as new incidents come to light.

Then the Times ends on a note of exasperation and condemnation.

“Mr. Weiner says he is staying in the mayoral race. To those who know his arrogance and have grown tired of the tawdry saga he has dragged the city into, this is not surprising.”

Obviously, Anthony Weiner has worn out his welcome with The New York Times.