Not even Weiner would try this. Not even Anthony Weiner, who’s running for mayor of the greatest city in the world seemingly as a pretext to talk to groups of reporters about how much ass he’s getting online, would stoop to claiming that he required formal instruction on how not to assault women.

I think I’m done, guys. When you find yourself writing about people whose morals compare unfavorably to Carlos Danger’s, you’ve consumed too much news. I need a more savory work environment, like, say, a prison. Hopefully Filner gets there first.

“The city failed to provide such training to Mayor Filner,” Filner’s lawyer Harvey Berger wrote in a July 29 letter to City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. “In fact, it is my understanding that such training was scheduled, but the trainer for the city unilaterally cancelled, and never re-scheduled such training for the Mayor (and others.) Therefore, if there is any liability at all, the city will almost certainly be liable for ‘failing to prevent harassment’ under Government Code Section 12940(k).”…

“While, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, many might argue that ‘you don’t need a weatherperson to tell you which way the wind blows,’ and an adult male should not need sexual harassment training, I would point out that in his decades of public service for the people of San Diego as a U.S. Representative, Mayor Filner has never received sexual harassment training,” Berger writes. “This is not an excuse for any inappropriate behavior which may have occurred, but having conducted sexual harassment training many times over the years, I have learned that many – if not most- people do not know what is and what is not illegal sexual harassment under California law. There is a very, very good reason for mandatory sexual harassment training; if nothing else it makes people think about the subject, and how they interact with their fellow employees. Had the City provided mandatory sexual harassment training to Mayor Filner, [former spokeswoman] Irene McCormack Jackson may never have brought her lawsuit.”

He didn’t know? Jackson claims he once put her in a headlock and told her another time that it’d be better if she worked without her panties on. And not only that:

While reviewing a draft press release in June, Filner allegedly asked McCormack for a kiss and said, “I am infatuated with you. When are you going to get naked?” When she asked him to leave her office, the lawsuit says he responded, “I can go anywhere I want, any time I want.”

Did he think that was a legal “gray area”?

Let’s hope he received formal training at some point on not exposing himself publicly or taking dumps on people’s lawns or else this story might be about to get much, much worse. In lieu of an exit question, here’s Carney at today’s briefing checking the no-comment box when asked about Filner. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in assuming that he thinks this is, at least, a real scandal. Unlike, say, Benghazi and the IRS.