Anthony Weiner Marvels at His Own Greed
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner has decided his path back to political power is to confess as many disturbing personality traits as possible with the hope that New Yorkers will forgive his crotch photo tweets and maybe elected him mayor of New York City. In an early April profile in The New York Times Magazine, Weiner's own brother said, "there was definitely a douchiness about him that I just don't really see anymore." Well, everyone else still might. On Tuesday, The New York Times' Michael Barbaro reports that Weiner is not actually a stay-at-home dad, but a consultant, who used his Washington connections to make a combined Weiner family income of $496,000 last year. Weiner is very proud of this. "On six different occasions during the interview," Barbaro reports, Weiner "marveled at his own aptitude for business. 'I found I am pretty good at it,' he said at one point, adding that he 'didn’t have to do very much or work very hard to drum up business.'" Not only is Weiner bragging about cashing in, he's bragging about how easy it was to cash in.
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Many, many politicians have gone through the revolving door between Congress and lobbying. Weiner says he's not a lobbyist, and that his contract forbids it. But it's clear he uses the connections from his old job to help enrich his clients at his new job. "Weiner said he had reached out to federal officials at the Energy and Agriculture Departments, as well as members of Congress, on behalf of his clients," Barbaro reports. Weiner told one client how to talk to the players on the Federal Communications Commission, something he learned when he sat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Remarkably, Weiner didn't have to confess any of this. He asked his clients to wave confidentiality agreements so he could brag to the Times about what a great not-quite-lobbyist he is. "I am a good capitalist," Weiner said. He is bad at self-awareness.
