Can Anthony Weiner bounce back from disgrace and run for mayor of New York? If the careers of Marion Barry, Barney Frank, and Richard Nixon are any indication, history's on his side.
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Start the double entendre engines! Rumors swirled over the weekend after the New York Post reported that the former New York congressman has $4.5 million in campaign funds and is “seriously considering” running for mayor of New York City. The 47-year-old married Democrat resigned from Congress in 2011 after it was revealed that he had sexted with numerous women. While Weiner denied the Post report to Daily Beast, the mere hint of a return has sparked speculation about the congressman's chances for a comeback. Some pundits suggest that, if and when Weiner does reemerge in local politics, it might be wise to aim a little lower—and run for the city’s public advocate position. “The general feeling is that you can’t text pictures of your penis to a girl, then lie about it, then get kicked out of the House and then run for mayor right after,” a political consultant told the Post. “But people believe there is a way for him to run for a lesser office.”
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If Anthony Weiner wants a role model for scandal survival, he needn’t look farther than his former local colleague, Charles Rangel. In 2010, the longtime Harlem congressman was censured by the House Ethics Committee after being found guilty of 11 ethical violations. Despite calls for him to resign, the 82-year-old Rangel (who joined Congress in 1970) ran for re-election this year—and won his June primary, all but guaranteeing him a 22nd term. “If they didn’t think after 42 years that I was the best qualified,” Rangel said of his constituency after the close victory, “I promise them that in the next two years they’ll have no question about the fact that we elected the best.”
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In a disgrace worthy of Jerry Springer—himself a former Congressman who bounced back from a scandal—Marion Barry had an epic fall as mayor of Washington, D.C. In 1990, Barry was videotaped by the FBI smoking crack with a former girlfriend in a motel. When he was arrested, Barry famously shouted, “Bitch set me up!”—but a jury saw it differently. Barry was convicted of cocaine possession and served six months in a federal prison. Two months after his release, the former mayor ran for City Council in Washington with the cheeky-but-honest slogan "He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for D.C." Voters agreed. Two years later, Barry ran for the mayoralty again—and was re-elected with 56 percent of the vote. He declined to run again after his term, and today—despite more scandals, including tax problems and alleged traffic violations—Barry is once again a member of the Washington, D.C., City Council.
Decades before he became the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same gender, Barney Frank was a closeted congressman from Massachusetts. But in 1989, Frank was outed when the Washington Times published a report that he had been involved with a gay prostitute named Steve Gobie. Even more shocking, Gobie had used Frank’s home for some of his other liaisons. While the House voted overwhelmingly to reprimand Frank, they found no evidence that he had known he was involved in any illegal activities. (In a twist that later proved ironic, it was former Sen. Larry Craig, of the 2007 bathroom-stall scandal, who called for Frank’s removal from office.) Later that year, Frank (who is retiring after this term) won re-election with 66 percent of the vote.
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In 1991, Virginia Sen. Chuck Robb was accused of having had an affair with former Miss Virginia USA Tai Collins while he was governor of the state. Robb, the son-in-law of former President Lyndon Johnson, denied that the two had had a relationship, but admitted that he had received a nude massage from Collins. (There were also allegations that during his time as governor, Robb attended parties where prostitutes were present and cocaine was being used. Robb vehemently denied the charges, claiming that he didn’t even know what cocaine looked like.) Despite the controversy, Robb was re-elected in 1994, in part because he ran against another scandal-plagued candidate, Oliver North. Six years later, however, Robb was defeated by his Republican opponent, George Allen.
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Imagine you are a U.S. district judge and are accused of taking a $150,000 bribe. You then become one of only eight federal officials to be impeached and removed from office. How do you get your political career back? Simple—you change branches of government. In 1992, three years after Alcee Hastings’s bribery scandal, he ran for Congress in Florida’s 23rd district, and won in an upset. In the past 20 years, Hastings (shown here testifying at his impeachment trial) has not faced a serious challenge in his heavily-Democratic district.
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When Anthony Weiner was caught with his pants way down in 2011, many supporters recommended he follow the strategy of Louisiana Sen. David Vitter—admit responsibility but refuse to resign. In 2007, Hustler magazine discovered the Republican senator’s phone number on the client list of Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam.” A day after the revelation, Vitter issued a public apology, with his wife by his side: "This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in his statement in which he asked for forgiveness. Three years later, the voters of Louisiana demonstrated it when they elected Vitter to a second term.
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As New York’s first black congressman, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was a powerful voice for the civil rights policies of presidents Kennedy and Johnson. But in 1967, Powell was investigated for having a former wife on his payroll, despite the fact that she did no work for him and had been living in Puerto Rico. While being investigated by the Judiciary Committee, Powell urged supporters to “keep the faith, baby,” but the House voted to remove him from his seat in Congress. The following year, Powell sued for the right to run for his seat, and he won the special election. In 1969, he became a member of Congress once more but was fined $25,000 and stripped of his seniority. (He's shown here smoking a cigarette after being sworn in.) Two years later, Powell was defeated by Charles Rangel, who holds the seat to this day.
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In what is undoubtedly one of the most colorful sex scandals in American history, Rep. Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was pulled over for speeding by Washington police in 1974. The congressman was intoxicated, and his passenger—Argentine stripper Fanne Foxe, with whom he was having an affair (and pictured here)—leaped out of the car and jumped into the nearby Tidal Basin to escape. In spite of the incident, Mills was re-elected to Congress weeks later by a wide margin. But he couldn’t get Foxe out of his system. The same month as the election, he was reportedly intoxicated again at one of Foxe’s performances at a local burlesque club. Mills then resigned his chairmanship, entered Alcoholics Anonymous, and did not seek re-election in 1976.
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On September 23, 1952, Richard Nixon—who had just been tapped as President Eisenhower’s running mate—salvaged his political career after a scandal with an address to the American people known as the Checkers Speech. Accused of improprieties related to a fund created to reimburse him for political expenses, Nixon went on television to explain his position. California’s junior senator not only denied the allegations against him, he was also defiant. He famously stated that he was "proud of the fact that Pat Nixon wears a good Republican cloth coat, and she's going to continue to” and maintained that he refused to return one particular gift to his children, a black-and-white dog named Checkers. Nixon’s speech was viewed or heard by 60 million people, and the support for him afterward was overwhelming, so he remained on the ticket. Twenty-two years after the "Checkers Speech," Nixon addressed the nation again on television—to resign from the presidency after Watergate.
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