Weiner Would Be A Terrible Mayor

With Anthony Weiner's re-emergence into the public eye yesterday, people on the Internets are starting to ask, "Could Weiner get elected mayor of New York City?"

Alex Seitz-Wald asks a better question: "Would Weiner make a good mayor of New York City?"

And the answer is - no.

Weiner never played well with others in Congress, was often seen as nothing more than a p.r. hound, isn't particularly interested in coalition-building or listening to others, was an absolute nightmare to work for, has a reputation for being a real jerk, wasn't very good at managing even his own staff, and hasn't spent his time in the wilderness developing a policy agenda or platform.

In short, he seems to want to run simply to rehabilitate his image and aggrandize his ego.

He is not unlike other disgraced politicians in that - Spitzer wanted to run for comptroller once (or so it was said) and Mark Sanford is running for Congress from South Carolina (and perhaps losing a solidly Republican seat) for the very same reason.

But it does mean we do not need to take him or his p.r. attempts seriously.

I saw some comments on the Weiner stories yesterday that some people felt Weiner should join the race, that he would bring depth to a shallow Democratic field.

I think that's nonsense.

I won't argue whether the Democratic field has depth, but I will argue this - Anthony Weiner hasn't any.