In what you'd have to call a negative trend, Americans have become accustomed over the years to politicians saying one thing to get elected and doing another once they're in office. In fact, these days, people think that is normal. Whether it's George H.W. Bush breaking his promise of "no new taxes," or Barack Obama violating his pledge to make immigration reform a priority of his administration, most people are tolerant of broken promises. They tell themselves that circumstances have changed or that the elected official will eventually make good. Besides, they say, every politician has his share of unfulfilled pledges.  That's not Weiner's problem. The lies he told in response to reporters' questions were much worse and much more direct. They were told not with the desire to get elected but with the intent to mislead and deceive. And that being the case, the damage to his political future is likely to be much more severe.  But you knew that already, if you caught even a glimpse of Monday's news conference where Weiner finally came clean about posting lewd photos on his Twitter account and lying about it.  It was a much different story than what we heard last week, when Weiner claimed that his account had been compromised and that, as a "prank," a hacker had posted a lewd photo on the account and sent the photo to a young woman. In a textbook example of how not to answer a question, Weiner told MSNBC's Luke Russert that, while he didn't send the tweet, he "can't say with certitude" whether he was the person in the photo. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Weiner couldn't even say whether the underpants in the picture were his.
As Anthony Weiner is about to find out: When you're a politician, not all lies are the same. There's a big difference between breaking a campaign promise by failing to deliver on something and