Past and Future Weiners

[Geee]

American Spectator:

The strange saga of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) may be over, but it is only a matter of time before the next scandal breaks. Why? Because the nation's capital has historically been full of Weiners.

Congress has become a hotbed for scandals, especially sexually charged ones. The end result for the politician involved is always unpredictable. Some are forced to resign like Weiner, while others weather the storm and are reelected repeatedly. What follows can be considered a random sampling.

Rep. Allan Howe (D-UT), for instance, was elected to the House in 1974 but lost his reelection bid in 1976 after being arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. But Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has been in office for thirty years despite the fact that he fixed parking tickets for a male prostitute he hired in 1989. The prostitute also ran an escort service from Frank's apartment, though the congressman claimed to be unaware.

Reps. Dan Crane (R-IL) and Gerry Studds (D-MA) were both reprimanded and censured by the House for engaging in sexual relations with their own personal underage pages. Crane's was a female and Studds' was a male; however, while Crane lost reelection in 1984, Studds was reelected to the House six more times.

In recent years, a number of Republicans have been pushed out of office under the cloud of scandal. Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) was accused of physically abusing a woman with whom he had a five-year long extramarital affair during the 2006 campaign. Although he won the Republican primary, he eventually lost the general election in large part because of the scandal.