…various places are reporting. But should he?

Writing in the Daily Beast, Peter Beinart doesn’t think so:

Here’s one good point:

The current line among talking heads is that he must resign because he’s hurting the Democratic Party, which no longer can focus public attention on the GOP’s efforts to cut Medicare. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. The main reason the Democrats no longer can focus public attention on the GOP’s efforts to cut Medicare, after all, is that talking heads would rather focus on Anthony Weiner’s pecs.

Here’s another:

Other critics say Weiner has shown poor judgment in his private life, which casts doubt about the judgment he’ll show in public life. But there’s no necessary connection between the two. Bill Clinton was privately reckless and publicly cautious; with George W. Bush it was the reverse.

Indeed. George W. Bush never cheated on Laura, so far as we know. But how many hundreds of thousands have died in Iraq because of his moral certitude, his lack of humility?

And I think this is very true:

How many of the pundits mocking Weiner have marriages that could survive the kind of scrutiny they have been giving his? The realization that everyone’s private life is messy and flawed should produce humility and compassion. Instead, pundits enter the public arena as disembodied Olympian figures, entitled to render the harshest of verdicts, secure in the knowledge that no one will ever investigate their most intimate of domains.

Alas, none of this is likely to make any difference. Forget all Weiner’s years of public service, all the fights he waged against Republicans who are actually doing damage to our country. What he did grosses us out. He’s gotta go.