Anthony Weiner is a victim of his own stupidity

These brutally hot days that we have been experiencing can often cause people to say strange things, and it is with that thought in mind that I urge you to counsel columnist Richard Cohen to stay inside until it cools off.

I’m unable to think of any other explanation for Mr. Cohen’s stunning defense of disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner [“Victim of a digital mob,” op-ed, July 12]. In his argument, Mr. Cohen makes a fundamental misjudgment: Mr. Weiner wasn’t hounded out of office because he was a victim of, in Mr. Cohen’s term, “the digital mob,” but because he was foolhardy and a liar. Nor was his privacy violated by anyone other than himself.

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Personal Post

When, for whatever reason, you send erotic pictures of yourself to a major segment of the American public, you might reasonably be supposed to have surrendered any claim to privacy.

And while lying to your constituents is not a crime — however much we might wish otherwise — it is hardly a standard we should honor.

But for Mr. Cohen to accuse the public of constructive indecency for castigating Mr. Weiner’s literal indecency is surely an example of standing the horse on its head.

Hank Blakely, Reston