Weiner Ex-Girlfriend Kirsten Powers Thinks her Pal Did Something Stupid, but Should Not Step Down

Kirsten Powers is many things: a Fox News political analyst, a columnist for The Daily Beast and The New York Post, and a former employee of the Clinton White House. She is also one of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s ex-girlfriends, and the two have remained friends in the ten years since they dated. Luckily, she was never on the receiving end of any funky photos from the now married Congressman.
 
“He’s always been a very, very good friend to me,” Powers told Imus. “So this has been a very painful thing to watch.”
 
She believes that even people who don’t know Weiner personally feel similarly. “Obviously he did something really stupid,” she said, referring to him carrying on multiple relationships with women he met online, and then lying after he accidentally posted a photograph of his nether regions on Twitter. “But he is a great Congressman.”
 
Powers believes that the power to remove a member of Congress from office as a result of this sort of scandal lies firmly with that person’s constituents. “There are things that are between him and his wife, really,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything illegal, and like I said—he’s a good Congressman, he works really hard, delivers for his constituents. His constituents love him.”
 
To Imus’s point that he’s not sure he wants someone who takes and then e-mails pictures of his pecks and his package deciding the course of action for this country, Powers noted, “He was doing this while at the same time being an excellent congressman. So…I tend to think the two things have very little to do with each other.”
 
Strangely, the repugnant actions of Bill Clinton, another famous adulterer, seem, in retrospect, almost quaint compared to the “creepy” pictures Weiner sent various women, at least in Imus’s view.
 
“It’s all wrong, it’s all bad,” Powers said. “We’re all capable of doing horrible things.”
 
Whether the Democratic leadership in the House is capable of forcing Weiner out is an entirely different story, and one Powers does not see ending in a resignation, as long as Weiner did not do anything illegal while conducing these affairs.
 
“It’s not helpful, it’s not good for the Party, they want it to go away,” she explained, adding, “They can pressure him, but it’s really up to him. And knowing him, I think it’s extremely unlikely he would step down.”
 
Besides, if it were true that sexual dalliances precluded political success, nobody would support Newt Gingrich or Rudy Giuliani, who both famously cheated on their now ex-wives.
 
“Kirsten,” Imus began, about to break some bad news to his guest. “Nobody is going to support Newt Gingrich or Rudy Giuliani. I don’t care what the hell they do.”
 
-Julie Kanfer