The latest Anthony Weiner scandal isn’t even political – it’s just sad

He was caught sexting, again

On Wednesday morning, the Daily Mail broke the news that a 51-year-old man had carried on an online sexual relationship for half a year to a 15-year-old girl.

The man, a married father of a four year-old son, told the girl: “I would bust that tight pussy so hard and so often that you would leak and limp for a week,” sharing porn with her and asking her to undress over video chat. In any other year, this story would be considered a sick, sad tragedy. But this is 2016 and the man in question disgraced former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. This episode will now go down in the macabre footnotes of 2016 as Weinergate IV.

Weinergate IV arrives not even a month after Weinergate III, a New York Post leak of sexually charged photos – disturbingly featuring Weiner’s son Jordan – which led his wife Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, to leave him. Weiner’s prospects just escalated from some mild probing from Child Protective Services for the inclusion of Jordan in lewd photos to the very real threat of sex offender registry or criminal charges for solicitation of sex from a minor.

When Weinergate III broke at the end of last month, some speculated whether Weiner’s susceptibility to extortion or blackmail could compromise national security due to Abedin’s knowledge and potential miscarriage of highly classified information from her tenure in then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s State Department. But Weinergate IV reveals the extent of Weiner’s recklessness and, even more tragic or tellingly, his own sense of damnation.

“I actually asked him if he talked to other minors and he said not that he knew of, which is the risk that he kind of takes when he’s talking to women on the internet,” said the girl, whose name has been withheld due to her age.

When The Mail broke the story, they actually included a statement from Weiner himself responding to and confirming the allegations.

“I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent. I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt. While I have provided the Daily Mail with information showing that I have likely been the subject of a hoax, I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. I am sorry.”

Weiner’s lackluster attempt to deny the story or even spin it demonstrates a total departure from shame or secrecy. No one could extort Weiner. That would involve him actually caring about maintaining the sanctity of his marriage, his duty as a father or even his own soul. Instead Weiner has spent years recklessly chasing his own pleasure and the demise of his career, with his family and his prey as collateral damage.

According the RCP polling average, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has barely over a one percent lead over Trump in a head-to-head match up. From the infamous 9/11 fall and weak campaign schedule to a botched response to the New York City bombing, Clinton has a myriad of problems plaguing her campaign. Anthony Weiner isn’t one of them. He’s just a monster devouring no one but himself.

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University of Southern California