In fact, there are victims. One is due process, which envisions a procedure other than a lynch mob for Congress to rid itself of a miscreant. Another is common decency, which means you stand up for someone who’s done no legal wrong. And you have to ask yourself what sort of precedent is being set. What sort of world is it where a digital Peeping Tom such as Andrew Breitbart gets hold of a picture meant for others and displays it to the world — not to reveal a crime but merely to titillate and mortify? For this, Breitbart even took over a Weiner news conference, acting as if he had done a public service and deserved recognition — maybe a Pulitzer Prize. Rupert Murdoch can make the presentation.

Anthony Weiner and Bill Clinton have much in common. Both had their private lives invaded. Both men were clamped in the stocks of mortification, Clinton by his conservative political enemies and that latter-day Javert, Kenneth Starr, and Weiner by Breitbart and other conservative stalkers. In both cases, the persecution was supposedly justified because both men had lied. But they had not lied to cover up a crime, but to cover up an embarrassment. There is a difference, and while Clinton crossed a line — he lied to a grand jury — Weiner did no such thing. He lied to save face. Here and there in Congress might be someone who’s done something similar.