Dr. Keith Ablow on Weiner's Behavior, and Why He Should Resign

Dr. Keith Ablow, a respected shrink, bestselling author, and insightful Fox News contributor, told Imus today that patients come to him all the time displaying behavior similar to that of Rep. Anthony Weiner, who admitted yesterday that he engaged in numerous online sexual correspondences with random women, and then lied about it after he accidentally posted a picture of his underpants on Twitter.
 
“Obviously there’s some energy that’s being shared by these women who accede to the Congressman’s wishes,” Ablow said, making the point that such conduct is not necessarily deviant. He further observed that people in power might have “an exaggerated need” for the companionship of more than one person, as Weiner, who is married, demonstrated.
 
While Weiner’s lapse in judgment in carrying on illicit e-mail or “sexting” relationships with these women might not be grounds for his dismissal from the House, Ablow believes his decision to lie about it makes him unqualified to represent the people of Brooklyn and Queens.
 
“Can someone be ‘sexting’ and be a decent leader, or even an exemplary leader? Yes, it’s possible,” Ablow said. “Can that same person lie in a seemingly emotionless fashion in front of cameras, and to the American people, and to one’s constituents? No. That person can’t be trusted.”
 
Had Weiner not, as he put it yesterday, “panicked” after sending out the inappropriate tweet, and came forward saying, “It’s nobody’s business what I do in terms of my romantic, erotic endeavors, I’m serving with passion and energy,” Ablow thinks he would have survived calls for resignation. Now, however, “When he lies to the American people, that’s a big problem.”
 
As for whether a person should be cut some slack if they freak out and fib, Ablow said, “In my office? Sure.” But Weiner clinging to his post for dear life in the face of having blatantly disrespecting the office sends an uncomfortable message. “If you respect the office, you have to therefore leave the office,” Ablow added. “Otherwise… you will be a symbol going forward of that fact that this is a joke, this government of ours.”
 
Ablow does not think “sexting” in and of itself represents a psychotic disorder; more accurately, it’s a new frontier. “The fact that you can access willing men or women who will engage in erotic activity with you through the web, it’s something human beings have not encountered before,” he said. And highly aggressive, high-energy public figures like Weiner are, he believes, “ill-equipped to resist that opportunity via the web.”
 
Most members of Congress would, in his view, give up their seat if they were told they must forego all sexual connections with people other than their spouses. “That’s the truth, and we better just admit it,” he said. “People do not want to live without these erotic connections.”
 
Ablow has never sent any revealing pictures himself, a fortunate development he attributed to a happy marriage and a “fear in my heart” of being exposed as having done so. He harbors fewer reservations about defending his pal Glenn Beck, whom he said is “good,” “focused,” “strong,” and “committed.”
 
Committed where, exactly? Imus would like to visit.
 
-Julie Kanfer