I did, and I do, like Rep. Weiner's politics, fighting for good causes.
I now think he's an idiot in the area of how he behaved here.
Like many powerful men, his sexual behavior is excessive - in this case, it appears, online flirtatious relationships.
It was not only a problem for his marriage, but as a progressive leader, he had a responsibility to other progressives as well not to embarrass the faction; he did.
So far, that's not that large of an issue, if he tells the truth when caught for the photo.
But he didn't do that. He tried to say little and see if it went away; it didn't and then he began to simply lie.
We could criticize the poor quality of his lies, but it misses the more important point that they were lies at all.
Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation; I don't need to read the thread to know it's likely not one right-wing poster has said something good about her doing that.
There are standards against lying this way for leaders. Balancing the issues, I'm ok with him continuing in office while his constituents vote for him. But I think he should not be the visible representative for his issues he has been. While it can be argued that 'the issues should not pay the price for his bad behavior', there's a price to pay for lying. That's not who you really want representing your faction, generally IMO.
Liberals have been let down by several of the politicians who support progressive positions, by their breaking trust on sexual behavior - Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, the not too liberal but still a Democrat Bill Clinton, and now Rep. Weiner to name some. This post doesn't need any 'but Republicans' list - it's not about that, it's about Rep. Weiner.
His choice to lie - albeit probably attempting to avoid problems with his marriage, the usual situation - should be criticized by fellow politicians.
We need to have some stigma liars pay to deter lying by others.
I don't think someone in his situation necessarily 'would lie about anything' - the norm seems to be that sexual bad behavior gets lies while other issues don't.
But it's still an issue, that he has betrayed the trust of pretty much everyone. It's shameful for him to do that.
One more harm from his bad behavior is to give Breitbart a legitimate win, which will give him a larger platform and more credibility for his next slander.