This essay is being written after Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress.  In his disgrace, former Congressman Weiner has earned a bit of admiration on my part.
For the past day or two, it has been obvious that former Congressman Weiner had no choice but to resign from Congress.  Resigning from his Congressional seat is one thing.  I suspect that when he is faced with the fury of his wife, that will be a different story.
But this afternoon, former Congressman Weiner appeared at the site in Brooklyn where he had launched his campaign for the Congressional seat that he held.  My admiration goes to such a person who makes no excuses about his conduct.  That is exactly what Anthony Weiner did this afternoon.  He did not have his wife standing on the stage with him.  Again, I applaud that move.  The fact is that Weiner simply admitted to having screwed up the situation, including his first story of his email being hacked.  He stood on the stage alone and accepted full responsibility with fulsome apologies to his wife for the trouble that he had caused her and to his constituents.
It is obvious that the Congressman lied to the public on repeated occasions.  In this case, Anthony Weiner was caught and simply said, “I did it.”  I know that there will be pundits who will kick the corpse.  That is not the way I do things.  I regret that Anthony Weiner had to resign because for a good many years, Weiner was an effective Congressman.  But when the time finally came for him to go, he simply acknowledged that fact and submitted his resignation.  No one accompanied him on stage when he announced his resignation, and there were no bitter tears.
I am quite certain that the Weiner affair is not over.  But it is not in my nature to beat a dead horse.  In this case, Weiner has admitted his mistakes and has taken full blame for them.  He is only 46 years of age, and I suspect that before life is done, we may again have to consider his candidacy.  I am sorry to see Weiner depart in the circumstances that prevailed.  But he did so with admirable restraint.
 
The second part of this essay is thoroughly unrelated to the first, and has to do with the argument that there is an exceptionalism about the American spirit.  After traveling over most of the world, I have come to the conclusion that every nation will contend that theirs is an exceptional nation.  To claim that Americans have exceptional skills or attributes makes me cringe.  When I worked with AT&T, my job was to visit the overseas communications organizations that offered overseas services.  I am glad that Newt Gingrich was not around to proclaim American exceptionalism.  If that had been the case, there would have been several hundred protests from other nationalities claiming the same distinction.
But Newt is gone now, or fairly close to being gone, and it is hoped that the claim of American exceptionalism goes with him.  We have a right to be proud in this country, but this pride is no greater than the pride that swells in the bosom of other nationalities.  But once again, I cringe whenever I hear the phrase as enunciated by Newt Gingrich and other politicians that “Americans are exceptional.”  If those remarks were intended for domestic consumption only, that would be one thing.  But the speed of communications is such these days that any cry of American exceptionalism will be heard on foreign shores.  If Mr. Gingrich exits the race for the presidency, I will applaud that exit.  In the meantime, I will continue to cringe every time it is proclaimed that Americans are exceptional.
 
E. E. CARR
June 16, 2011
Essay 557
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Kevin’s commentary: Americans are exceptional sometimes, though! We’re exceptionally fat, for instance. We are exceptionally bad at learning other languages. The list goes on.
Writing from 2013, we have indeed not heard much from Wiener lately. This is probably for the best. But yes, after some initial foibles, he actually did okay damage control. Contrasted against, say, Mark Sanford, the man is a genius and handled the whole situation rather well.