Yesterday's Leftovers Bumped To 3/17/10: Even The Best Ones Can Be Painfully Wrong

Everybody in the rational online community doesn't need to be reminded of how awesome Anthony Weiner is. And the fact that he represents Brooklyn (though not my district, as Ed Towns represents it) is further admiration for the Congressman.

Until further notice, he will remain one of the few public officials that I can confidently call "a public official" instead of a politician. In short, more people like Anthony Weiner would certainly be a benefit to our government, no question about that.

But there comes a time when that usually terrific Congressional figure you respect and appreciate a lot is so wrong on an issue that you can't let favoritism block you from criticizing him or her. And that is the moment I'm presented with here in regards to Congressmen Weiner.

He said this earlier today, with full conviction:

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is adding his voice to the criticism of the White House's response to an ill-timed Israeli construction decision, and in sharper terms than his colleagues.

“The appropriate response was a shake of the head – not a temper tantrum," Weiner said in a statement to be released shortly. “Israel is a sovereign nation and an ally, not a punching bag. Enough already.”

Since we all knowing how Hackio is (though Ben Smith has grown on me a little bit by just being a reporter of late), went to another source just to make sure he said it, and he did.

So I called his office a earlier in the evening if there was any misquoting of him with that statement, and the office politely said he said what he said. And it's a shame that he did.

Weiner has and will always be an unquestionable supporter of Israel. Nothing wrong with that since everyone in Congress probably holds the same general position.

But here is the thing: They can also support Israel and at the same time rightly criticize the Netanyahu led government who embarrassed Vice President Biden last week and continue to act like unreasonable spoiled children (and in some people's justified views, thugs or monsters) to this day by continuing in their East Jerusalem settlement "Bob the Builder" agenda.

They simply have not shown any meaningful step forward towards the two-state solution.

And with his comments today, Weiner is right in line with two lovely individuals by the names of Joe Lieberman and Eric Cantor. Two individuals that we frankly know personally that Weiner really doesn't give a damn about, and rightfully so.

It isn't hard for supporters of Israel outside of the Obama Administration to see how out of control Netanyahu & his crew are here. J Street once again places themselves on the correct side on this, a stance you would think any usually fair, open minded public official would be on.

Yet Weiner's continued steadfast support for Israel's leaders, even in this situation, by criticizing his own Administration actions way more than the Netanyahu extremists who didn't think it through to abase Biden in such a fashion (and really not reprimand them at all it seems) is just way way wrong from him.

Hell, he might as well just have written the dreck that came out of Fred Hiatt's Crayon op-ed page today .

If a guy like Weiner who calls out the BS just as well as anyone in the capital can't place himself on the right side of this, then it shows just how difficult it is to contain AIPAC's influence on our politicians (though Weiner's own personal beliefs could weigh even more in what he said).

And that it is very fundamental nowadays to slam our government for even daring to call out an allied nation, who we give $3 billion to for military aid, for their dubious actions.