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Keller @ Large: Do Us A Favor And Disappear

BOSTON (CBS) - A friend of mine who works with politicians once told me about the pep talk he gives first-time candidates.

Remember, he tells them, you are in the public spotlight, and anything you do is likely to become news.

So if a guy cuts you off in traffic, resist the impulse to let him know what you think of it, because next thing you know, your gesture is the talk of the town.

Perhaps Anthony Weiner once knew this.

He has proven to be an astute-enough politician to get elected to Congress seven times, and to become a media go-to guy for impassioned partisan rhetoric.

But it seems that for all his preaching about political morality, Weiner somehow decided that none of his own rhetoric actually applied to himself as well.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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A major warning sign was a 2008 story in the New York Times documenting Weiner's abusive treatment of his staffers, driving them to resign at a faster rate than any of his New York state colleagues.

And now we see the contemptible way he treats his own wife, let alone the public's minimal expectation that he won't lie in our faces and chastise us for not liking it.

Weiner's implosion is spectacular, but hardly unusual.

It seems like the parade of DC fakers has no end, hypocritical conservatives extolling family values while cheating on their spouses, liberal phonies like Weiner extolling human rights while treating the humans around them like trash.

Yes, this happens in other walks of life, but there's no bubble quite like the Washington bubble, a place where even a cretin like Anthony Weiner can get his ring kissed to the point where he believes it's his due.

Yesterday, between bouts of bone-dry crying, Weiner said he doesn't begrudge anyone their refusal to defend him.

Hey, thanks, Congressman.

Now do us another favor and disappear. You can spin it as the ultimate act of environmental cleanup.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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