Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

NY Times: Anthony Weiner Is A Petulant, Impatient Man-Child

It's not the Twitter piece I'm waiting for, but there's a pretty damaging piece out by the Times tonight on Anthony Weiner:

When President Obama needed every Democrat in Congress to back his health care plan in 2009, Representative Anthony D. Weiner threatened behind the scenes to torpedo the package in favor of a more sweeping measure. He backed off after he was promised a bigger share of the spotlight during the highly watched debate. 

The previous year, when advocates of immigration reform invited Mr. Weiner to a round-table discussion with business leaders and more senior New York City members of Congress, he demanded to turn it into a hearing, featuring himself in a gavel-wielding role. Rebuffed, he failed to show up.
In six terms in Congress, he sponsored and wrote only one bill that he steered to enactment: a measure pushed by a family friend who gave him tens of thousands of dollars in donations. 

...

 Yet the more lasting impression left by Mr. Weiner, according to more than three dozen people interviewed, was of a go-it-alone politician whose legislative record was thin and whose restlessness could spill into recklessness. He smartly selected issues on which to weigh in but left the tough work of legislating to others, they said. 

“It was like he had a megaphone surgically attached to his mouth,” said former Representative Zachary T. Space, Democrat of Ohio. “His unwillingness to be a team player did compromise his ability to be an effective congressman. I don’t care if you’re a congressman, or president, or mayor or a city councilman — you can’t do it yourself.” 
...

His staff had the highest turnover in the New York City delegation, and some aides complained about his behavior. In 2005, he became so irritated with a staff member that he threw a salad against the wall, then left the room as the dressing slowly dripped, leaving a stain. Another time, arguing with an aide, Mr. Weiner threw his BlackBerry against a wall, then blamed the aide for the broken phone. 

“It was like ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ ” recalled Stacey E. Fitzpatrick, a lawyer in Seattle who worked for Mr. Weiner on the City Council. 

Other elected officials were struck not only by his intensity, but also by what they viewed as his lack of loyalty. 

In Brooklyn, this view took hold as early as 1998, when as a councilman he ran for the House seat being vacated by Senator Charles E. Schumer. 

According to three officials, Mr. Weiner sought the advice of a popular Brooklyn district leader and political operative, Bernie Catcher — even visiting the hospital where Mr. Catcher was recovering from heart surgery, to go over campaign materials. 

Not long afterward, Mr. Catcher’s boss, Assemblyman Anthony J. Genovesi, was killed in a car crash. Out of a job, Mr. Catcher called Mr. Weiner, newly elected to Congress, for help. Mr. Weiner did not return his calls. 

“That hurt us all,” Councilman Lewis A. Fidler said. “I do hold that incident against Anthony.”

Disloyal, self-aggrandizing, selfish, self-obsessed, childish and unable to work with others.


In short, a disaster if he's elected mayor.

No comments:

Post a Comment