WHAT MADE ANTHONY WEINER A LAUGHINGSTOCK TODAY IS WHAT'S MADE CHRIS CHRISTIE A SUPERSTAR FOR YEARS

Anthony Weiner's life in politics is going to end next Tuesday when he finishes well out of the running in New York's Democratic primary for mayor, and that's as it should be -- but I just want to point out a double standard. Weiner elicited a lot of eye-rolling for a confrontation he had with today with a voter in Borough Park, Brooklyn, who called him a "scumbag":





We now know, from an extended clip of the confrontation, that Weiner's critic not all called him a "scumbag" but complained that he's "married to an Arab" (between about 3:50 and 3:58 in the extended clip, below):





So, yeah, Weiner lost it, but he had a right to be upset.

But even if he didn't, why does this confrontation make him a laughingstock when the active politician in the New York region who's deemed most swoon-worthy by political insiders, the one who's breathlessly discussed as a possible future president, got to that exalted status in large part by engaging in confrontations just like this?

Am I wrong to think that if this had happened to Chris Christie, his poll numbers would go up? Is there any real difference between Weiner's confrontation and a typical Christie day?











Weiner yells and the political world snickers. Christie yells and the political world gets a thrill up its collective leg.