Anthony Weiner is waging a scorched-earth strategy: He might lose the mayoral race, but he’ll make the city suffer in the meantime.
What else to make of his defiant refusal to bow out of the race in the face of growing calls for him to do so and vanishing voter support?
Weiner, it seems, shares the same hubris that’s got the state’s hooker-tarnished ex-governor, Eliot Spitzer, vying for comptroller: Neither cares a whit about how his candidacy makes the city a laughingstock.
Yesterday, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Weiner nose-diving to fourth place in the primary, with just 16 percent support. It also shows likely primary voters want him out by a 53-40 margin.
Meanwhile, David Axelrod, an adviser to Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, insists Weiner “go away.” Reports suggest Clinton and his wife, Hillary, want Weiner to end his bid. And even his campaign manager, Danny Kedem, quit.
None of this fazes Carlos Danger: “You’re stuck with me,” Weiner told New Yorkers in a weekend interview.
Why such obstinance? Put it this way: It’s not because Weiner thinks New York is doomed without him.
No, what Anthony Weiner cares about most is what he sees when he looks at his selfies — that is, Anthony Weiner.
It’s the same kind of motivation behind Spitzer’s desperate bid for comptroller — in which he’s actually vowing to drive away core city businesses if elected.
Most cynical is Client 9’s claim in a recent ad that he’s running to make it up to New Yorkers for his call-girl scandal — even if they never asked him to.
If Weiner or Spitzer want to atone, surely there’s no shortage of charitable causes for them to take up. Their first good step would be to end their campaigns — and then quietly slink away from the public eye.