A reader passes along a link that I find rather interesting. I'll simply cut and paste -- and will offer scant analysis. The following excerpts are from a lengthy 2001 Vanity Fair piece describing the social lives of several young, low-level, female Congressional staffers. Rep. Anthony Weiner's name comes up several times throughout the story:
The women are heckled as they enter. “Tell us your name and where you are from,” says one of the men. As if on a game show the women comply, one by one. When Caroline says she is an intern, the largest of the group, a white-haired man with a big belly and big laugh, roars, “We’re afraid of interns.” He throws his knife at a lean man named Mike, at the other end of the table. Mike is unamused. He threatens to throw it back. Another guy, rotund and jolly-faced, stands up and does an impression of Marlon Brando doing Don Corleone. The others think it’s hysterical. Diana whispers that there is no way they can be congressmen. She figures they are businessmen. She wonders how she is going to get out. They are congressmen—although at first they pretend not to be.
One, the youngest, with a tiny goatee, introduces himself as Anthony, an auto-parts salesman. The others call him “the Jewish kid” and make fun of his beard. Their real names and states are as follows: the auto-parts salesman is Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)...
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The next day [in the immediate aftermath of 9/11], 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.
Caroline records: “Went for lunch with Diana. Anthony Weiner has emailed her and she didn’t know he was a member of Congress. She died when I showed her his card! It was so funny!! I think she likes him, but she doesn’t want to admit it. In fact, I know she likes him ’cos she’s been on his website this afternoon looking at the photo gallery.”
A week later, two nights before Caroline will leave for England, the girls return to the Capital Grille. Now they know the drill, and they capture their prey with ease. “Three more congressmen,” Diana gloats. “Republicans—got their cards and everything.” 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.
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These passages prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that a then-unmarried Rep. Anthony Weiner wasn't opposed to aggressively seeking out and tracking down much younger women on Capitol Hill (even immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11). There's no scandal or smoking gun here, but this added context may help establish a broader picture of Weiner's proclivities and past patterns of behavior as we try to make sense of the slow-motion disaster we've been witnessing over the last few days.
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