After His Campaign's Misogynistic Meltdown, Anthony Weiner Must Go

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I don’t care about Anthony Weiner’s affairs, and I wasn’t all that concerned about who is New York City’s next mayor. But do I care about the dignity of women, and for that reason Weiner should end his political career now.

I like New York City. The last time I visited, I was surprised by the courtesy I encountered. One afternoon it was raining hard, and my partner and I were huddled in a doorway trying to stay dry. A man walking by saw us and asked if we were okay. We said we were fine and just waiting for the rain to let up so we could hail a cab. He hailed one for us and walked us to it, under his umbrella.

I wasn’t surprised because that happened in New York City, with its legendary and often proudly-hyped reputation for rudeness. It would have surprised me anywhere. But it was especially nice to find that courtesy in New York City, which represents the entire U.S. for millions of foreign visitors each year.

Still, I wasn’t all that concerned about who will be New York City’s next mayor … until I read about the vile, misogynistic tantrum by mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s communications director, Barbara Morgan:

TPM called Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan to discuss an unrelated story Tuesday and she went off on a curse-filled rant about Nuzzi[.]

That would be Olivia Nuzzi, who wrote a blog article about the Weiner campaign on Sunday. She also wrote the New York Daily News cover story yesterday on why she and others volunteered as interns for the Weiner campaign, and why they left. It’s not much of an article. Nuzzi is a college student still learning her craft, and the story offers no startling revelations.

It certainly didn’t deserve Morgan’s vicious response:

F*cking slutbag. Nice f*cking glamour shot on the cover of the Daily News. Man, see if you ever get a job in this town again.
[…]
She sucked. She like wasn’t good at setting up events. She was clearly there because she wanted to be seen. Like it was, like, terrible and I had to like – she would like, she would just not show up for work.
[…]
And then like she had the f*cking balls to like trash me in the paper. And be like, “His communications director was last the press secretary of the Department of Education in New Jersey.” You know what? F*ck you, you little c*nt. I’m not joking, I am going to sue her.

Last night Morgan apologized in a statement to Business Insider:

In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off the record conversation. It was wrong and I am very sorry, which is what I said tonight when I called and emailed Olivia to apologize.

Publisher Josh Marshall denies that anyone at TPM told Morgan the conversation would be “off the record.” And that’s really beside the point. What she said was not simply “inappropriate.” It was inexcusable.

It also doesn’t matter that Weiner didn’t make these comments himself. This wasn’t a grassroots volunteer, overheard letting off steam with a friend at a local coffee shop. This was his campaign’s communications director, talking to a reporter. She speaks for him, and her comments fit his ugly pattern of treating women as disposable toys.

Yesterday Weiner released an ad saying he won’t drop out of the race because “quit isn’t the way we roll in New York City.”

Then learn to roll another way, Mr. Weiner. Women and progressives didn’t tolerate that kind of vile language from Rush Limbaugh, and we won’t tolerate it from your campaign. Women don’t need a candidate like you or a campaign like yours. Not anywhere, and especially not in New York City.

You need to get out of politics and into therapy. And take your staff with you.