In a new profile of Anthony Weiner, who is running in New York City's mayoral race this year, the New York Times took a look at the former Congressman's legislative record and found that it was mostly about "intensity, publicity and limited results." According to the Times' analysis, in Weiner's 12.5 years as a Congressman, he only sponsored one bill, which was being pushed by a friend of his family, who also happened to be a big donor to Weiner's campaign.
From the Times:
When President Obama needed every Democrat in Congress to back his health care plan in 2009, Representative Anthony D. Weiner threatened behind the scenes to torpedo the package in favor of a more sweeping measure. He backed off after he was promised a bigger share of the spotlight during the highly watched debate.
The previous year, when advocates of immigration reform invited Mr. Weiner to a round-table discussion with business leaders and more senior New York City members of Congress, he demanded to turn it into a hearing, featuring himself in a gavel-wielding role. Rebuffed, he failed to show up.
“It is just a false choice — that is lazy thinking about politics — to believe that the only way to get anything done is to sit with a law book in front of you and thick glasses, and try to figure out whether it can move a semicolon from the end of this section to the beginning of another section,” Weiner said, defending his record to the Times.
Read the full profile here.
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