We are supposed to find it shocking that Weiner can’t quit this vice, especially because he has been caught and embarrassed by it so often. But why? Don’t we all know people who have trouble controlling their vices, no matter how much havoc it wreaks on their lives and on the people who surround them?

Somewhere out there, you know or are related to someone who wrecked his life with debt, food, sex, drugs, or booze. His life came apart. He may have lost the love and respect of his closest family members. His faults may have even brought him to to the point of death. What happened? Friends intervened. The troubled person in question publicly detested his faults and promised to do better. He spent time talking about the obvious improvements in his life since giving up the old way of living.

And then a few weeks, months, or years later, the recidivist phone call comes. “Again!?”

So why do we feign surprise with Anthony Weiner?