Rep. Weiner must resign

We'll overlook the creepiness of Rep. Anthony Weiner's cyberspace adventures with women all over the country before and during his marriage. We'll lay aside his outsized ambition, his reputation as a bully and his sheer ineffectiveness as a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

What we can't overlook is his astonishingly poor judgment, followed by his protracted and shameless lying.

This space was never intended to be routinely devoted to the problem of Famous Married Men Behaving Badly. Yet they seem to do so often enough that perhaps a regular feature is warranted, the better to sort out which ought to stay, which must go, and which are such a menace they should be locked up. It seems only yesterday that yet another married, buff New York congressman, Republican Chris Lee of the Buffalo area, quit after sending a bare-chested photo of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist.

Anyone determined to publish a calendar of philandering politicians would have trouble choosing only 12. Nevada's Sen. John Ensign, for example, had an affair with the wife of a staff member, a man who was then paid $96,000 by Ensign's parents and who said the senator helped him line up lobbying clients. John Edwards is accused of using $925,000 from supporters to keep his paramour -- the mother of his child -- out of the way while he sought the Democratic nod for president.

Eliot Spitzer laid aside his prosecuting zeal long enough to visit prostitutes. Mark Sanford went AWOL as South Carolina governor while visiting his "soul mate" in Argentina. Sen. Larry Craig was accused of soliciting sex in a Minnesota men's room. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted fathering a child with a housekeeper. The list of relatively recent incidents goes on and on.

By these standards, Weiner's case isn't so bad. He doesn't appear to have broken any laws, and so far there is no evidence he had actual sex. Even if he did, that's his business. Consensual sex is private -- or ought to be.

But a congressman's judgment and integrity are everyone's business. By engaging in extended sexually oriented chat sessions and zapping suggestive or lewd photos of himself over the Internet, Weiner behaved with insupportable foolishness. By lying, apparently without compunction, he demolished his credibility, feeding public cynicism about elected officials and inviting comparisons with the family-values hypocrites so often caught with their pants down.

Inevitably, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation. Weiner says he didn't use government phones or computers in his tawdry pursuits, but if he did, that could give fellow Democrats a pretext for shoving him out the door. If necessary, they should use it.

But who needs the distraction? With high unemployment, wars, lofty federal deficits and other problems, Washington should be focused on the nation's business, not a reckless exhibitionist who lacks the sense to pursue his fantasies discreetly or address them honestly.

Through hubris, Anthony Weiner has brought discredit on himself and his colleagues. He should at least have the decency to resign, and we urge him to do so immediately. hN