American Jewish Congressman Anthony Weiner got entangled in a sex scandal on Twitter, but the pronunciation of his family name made the situation worse creating a dangerous scandal for the Democrats, and all of it thanks to the new era in communications.
The name Weiner among Ashkenazi Jews is descended from 17th-century Europe, and generally meant a wine merchant, but there are also those who note that the name came from the Austrian capital, Vienna. In English you can differentiate between the two by their spelling, where the first is spelled Weiner and the second Wiener. But the most important thing is when it comes to the pronunciation of the name: The first is pronounced winer, while the second is pronounced weener.
New York Jewish Congressman Anthony Weiner's ancestors may have spelled their last names Weiner, like the wine merchants, but like many other Americans chose to pronounce it with that double "e" sound: "wee-ner." They had no way of knowing they were determining Weiner's future political fate, turning him at this very moment into the main object of unprecedented ridicule, contempt and mockery across America.
The reason for this is that Weiner pronounced "weener" is the nickname for a well-known sausage, cut off on one end, that has its roots in Vienna and that, when put inside a roll, becomes the famous American hot dog. You don't need a vivid imagination to fathom how over the years the wiener, or weenie for short, became one of the most popular and widespread of dozens, if not hundreds, of English slang words for the male sex organ.
That's why it was inevitable that when Congressman Weiner was caught Tweeting a close-up of his bulging crotch to a woman he didn't even know, the deadly double entendre regarding his family name and his embarrassing actions turned a scandal into a mega-scandal. It turned a juicy story into one with jokes and ridicule and ratings that could equal the dropping of an atomic bomb. The entire episode how could it have not? turned into "Weinergate," an item unknown just two weeks ago, but that now turns up two million hits when you Google it.
"What's in a name-" asked Juliet when she tried to persuade Romeo that love would conquer all. But in real life, at least in Weiner's case, his name is everything and he's living up to it, (especially if you repeat it a few times fast). True, if Weiner had chosen the alternate spelling, with a long "i" sound, he would have immediately been called "whiner" after he cried during a press conference this week, but that gag wouldn't stand a chance against Weinergate, which is now permanently inscribed in the pantheon of American sex scandals.
There goes the momentum
Congressman Weiner, 47, a rising Democratic Party star, represents a voting district in New York that includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn, known as "the most Jewish" district in America. He's considered the "bulldog" of the party's progressive wing, one who never ducks debating sometimes brutally but always wittily with the spokespeople for the Republican right and its representatives on Fox News.
On the other hand, Weiner is considered a staunch hawk on anything regarding Israel, and once even proposed blocking the entrance of, as he called him, the "terrorist" Mahmoud Abbas into New York. Weiner's also a tough opponent of the Saudi government and the weapons deals between the Saudis and the U.S. a fact that gave greater resonance to his highly reported wedding last summer to Huma Abedin, a Muslim woman born in Saudi Arabia to parents from India and Pakistan, and who serves as a close consultant to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Like many politicians caught with their pants down, Weiner panicked when the picture that he sent Janet Cordova, a 21-year-old student from Seattle, was published. He made a complete fool of himself when he argued that his computer was hacked and that he could not "absolutely be sure" that it was his crotch in the picture. A few hours later, additional women came forth with incriminating photos and steamy chats Weiner sent them by e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, and two nights ago a completely pornographic shot of the organ in question turned up, which immediately drew hundreds of thousands of views.
Leading Democrats were impressively quick to dissociate themselves from Weiner this week because they fear a potential political disaster. It was only recently that the Democrats built up some fresh momentum ahead of the 2012 Congressional race, when they won special elections last month in a western New York district always considered staunchly Republican. The Democrats exploited the voters' anger over the Republicans' calls for radical reforms in health care for the elderly and hoped to use it as a winning formula in the other races as well. But who has any time for such serious matters when one can, pardon the expression, sink one's teeth into a juicy episode like "Weinergate."
And perhaps there's some contagious disease floating around out there, because the aforementioned special elections it's hard to believe were held after the former Congressman, Republican Chris Lee, was forced to step down at the beginning of the year after posing as a 39-year-old divorcee and sending a bare-chested photo of himself to a woman who advertised on an on-line dating service.
Virtual Lust
Weiner's story, in which a personality defect brought him to the edge, and from there into a free fall to the abyss, is without a doubt a first-rate Greek tragedy but also a sex scandal, if one can call it that, that is entirely the prduct of the the 21st century. It exists in virtual space, something once called cyberspace, with characteristics unique to the new social media.
Twitter might not have caught on in Israel, but is the choice means of expression for American politicians and celebrities. Weiner was considered one of the most original and productive users of Twitter, and the women with whom he was in contact were chosen from among his 20,000 Twitter followers. But unlike sex scandals from days gone by, Weiner didn't know the women he was romancing, had no real contact with them, and as such may not have chated on his wife, at least not in the traditional sense. Even the word "sexting," which was created only a few years ago to describe sexually oriented text messages, is no longer relevant. "Weinergate," after all, is about G3 lust, with third- or fourth-generation photos a possibility.
A few hours after he tweeted the picture that got him into trouble, Weiner tried to delete it from his Tweeter account but not before someone was able to take a screenshot of it and save it. In virtual space, there is no real privacy, no discretion and it turns out all the evidence is documented forever, liable one day to keep hundreds of pundits and comedians in business and to entertain millions of people around the world. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 21, Verse 23, says, "Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles." We can add to that messages, chats and tweets, but first and foremost, crotch shots.
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