Criticism, But No Censure for Wiener Yet

Politicians have had plenty to say about photos of Michael Wiener in the sex district of Angeles City, the Philippines.

On Thursday, activists took their turn lambasting the commissioner.

A special County Commission meeting called Thursday morning to discuss the censure of Wiener was canceled for lack of a quorum. But the commissioners who did show up, Maggie Hart Stebbins and Michelle Lujan Grisham, listened to public testimony on the matter for about an hour.

Micaela Cadena of Young Women United said Wiener has a “history of inappropriate and unethical behavior,” an apparent reference to his being the subject of a sexual-harassment investigation and outrage over a racist joke he forwarded on email.

“We’re concerned about the sexism he’s displayed throughout his tenure,” Cadena said.

The photos of Wiener in the red-light district of Angeles City surfaced last week when they were published by a Seattle photographer, John Keatley, who was documenting sexual exploitation. He said Wiener asked him to take his photo as he posed with scantily clad young women outside a bar.

Wiener has a different account, arguing that it was the photographer who approached him, not the other way around.

He says he was in the Philippines to visit his daughter and simply took cab into Angeles City during an airline layover. Nothing inappropriate happened, he said, and he was with his fiancee the whole time.

Stebbins and Grisham couldn’t take action to censure Wiener on Thursday because the remaining commissioners didn’t show up: Wayne Johnson, Art De La Cruz and Wiener himself.

De La Cruz said it wasn’t necessary to hear the matter as an emergency and that it can be taken up later.

De La Cruz’s opponent in the June primary blasted him for failing to attend.

Zoe Economou noted that only the female members of the commission showed up to vote.  “I’m very disappointed the boys’ club wouldn’t be here today,” she said.

Rachel LaZar of El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos said Wiener was flippant when meeting with her group a few months ago about local enforcement efforts that have led to deportation. One tearful woman shared a story with Wiener about the deportation of her son, who was a straight-A student, LaZar said.

“During the entire meeting, we were subject to inappropriate jokes,” she said.

My colleague Leslie Linthicum today raised some questions about Wiener’s story of what happened.