The Sad case of the Non-barking Dog

There are times when we can learn as much from noticing what did not happen as we learn from observing what did. People who lived under the Soviets talk about piecing together ideas of actual events from the omissions in Pravda. In a famous Sherlock Holmes story, a mystery was solved by noticing that a dog had not barked under circumstances where, if certain assumptions had been true, it would have. We are seeing something similar in the case of Anthony Weiner.

Reporters, politicians of both parties, and assorted public moralists are expressing outrage all over the various media about his actions. Leaders of his own party have pleaded for his resignation. It has been a national scandal. Yet what he really did, while puerile, creepy, and a bit revolting, was not really a big deal. He exchanged vulgar photos of himself and messages about himself with various women who participated voluntarily. (At least one of his correspondents was a teenage girl, but there has been no report that he solicited her or did anything else illegal in his contacts with her.)

What I find interesting is that these are the things people are focusing on and outraged about. Almost no one is calling him to task for his systematic, ongoing, serial, vilely unscrupulous lying about the matter. He lied to people in the media. He lied to the public. He lied to his colleagues. He lied to his friends and associates, many of whom were made to look foolish in public by defending him. He lied even as he confessed to his earlier rounds of lying. Yet, almost no one is citing that as a reason for him to resign in disgrace. Someone once wrote that one of the things Americans are least honest about is their expectation of honesty. They say they value honesty and expect it of others, but routinely accept that touts and politicians are lying to them without holding them the least bit accountable for it. This case illustrates that very well. People should be demanding that Weiner leave office, not only or mainly because his a pervert, but because he has shown himself to be an utter scoundrel. That this is not happening very much suggests in a sad way just how much the American people have become accustomed and resigned to mendacity from those in power. Outrage over the lying is the worrisome dog that should be barking like mad and is not.