First As Tragedy, Second as Farce

Karl Marx is famously quoted as glossing Hegel's dictum that a"ll great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice [by adding that] He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

Anthony Weiner's political fall from grace may not have quite measured up the first time around, but the farcical elements are certainly predominating this time around. Between Carlos Danger (which has led to an internet meme allowing the reader to obtain a similar nom de Twitter), to his spokesperson's obscenity laced tirade against a former intern, the Weiner campaign has gone where, previously, Uncle Duke has gone. (the "Nothing to Lose" campaign that promised Duke would be "the ferret in the pants of government" can still be viewed.)

But this? Performance Art:

Jimmy McMillan, a perennial candidate whose “The Rent Is Too Damn High” anthem and political party has made him a household name, rolled out his support for Mr. Weiner and urged the scandal-scarred candidate to stay in the race.

“I told him don’t quit,” Mr. McMillan told Politicker in an interview. “We didn’t talk about politics, I just told him clearly, ‘You do not quit. You can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, you shouldn’t have got in this race.’”

Mr. McMillan said he and the former congressman “met accidentally in a restaurant in Harlem called IHOP.” The brief breakfast that the two pols shared was enough to convince Mr. McMillan that Mr. Weiner was the right candidate to win the Democratic primary. Indeed, he said that if he wasn’t running for mayor on his own line, he would have applied to become Mr. Weiner’s campaign manager.

“We all are freaky. He just exposed his freaky-ism in the wrong way,” Mr. McMillan said of Mr. Weiner’s sexually explicit photos. “I think Anthony needs someone like me to tell him, ‘Don’t be afraid to go get help if you need it.’”

Oh, as usual dear.

If your don't know who Jimmy McMillan is, uh, here:



Yeah, he really did run for governor; here he is with Andrew Cuomo, in an iconic moment: