Gutfeld: High status men no longer held to high standards?

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Gutfeld: High status men no longer held to high standards?

Anthony Weiner struggles to clean up his act for a second time

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 24, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So as Weiner's scandals rise from the dead like the turgid zombies from a horror flick, all we can do is stand and stare, not with shock, but with exhaustion. Really, we're just tired.

Seriously, can the average American go about his business without seeing a politician's business? And worse, do we really have to witness the theater of therapy played out for all of us to see? If I want a romantic soap opera with perversion and intrigue, I'll watch "Fox & Friends."

But it's not about women, it's about men, and how little we expect from them these days. I mean, if Anthony Weiner can spend his life avoiding real work, intent only in campaigning for jobs that we pay for, all the while trolling for pathetic self gratification, why should we even bother. If was no longer hold high status males to high standards before they're elected, what's the point of having standards for ourselves?

Clearly, if we're OK as men with Weiner, then it is because we assume we're just like him. Are we? Think about the average dude married with two kids, working his butt off all to support his family. For him, it's never about power, it's about principle.

Now, compare that to the high living low life that is Weiner, who's going to live on a government salary in a mansion, while cultivating a status that allows his fetishes to flourish. This entire escapade is about accumulating power because he has no other talents.

So, this isn't just about Weiner's treatment of women, it's also about men who need to grow up in general. If men started acting like men again, then boys like Weiner wouldn't stand a chance.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: I saw those pictures surfaced, Gutfeld, that's all I got --

ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: No German art films.

GUTFELD: No, I have been proud of those German art films, when they come out and they're embarrassing, I will be extremely happy. And so --

(INAUDIBLE)

GUTFELD: Yes, I will. We just have to find out what happened to the llama because he was a delightful character, Captain Furball.

Are we just not talking about this story or are we talking about it?

BOLLING: We shouldn't talk.

GUTFELD: We got a SOT.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: What's a SOT?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY WEINER, NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The behavior was problematic to say the least, destructive to say the most, caused many stresses and strains in my marriage, but I am pleased and blessed she has given me a second chance.

HUMA ABEDI, WIFE OF ANTHONY WEINER: Anthony made some terrible mistakes both before he resigned from Congress and after. We discussed all of this before Anthony decided to run for mayor. So, really what I want to say is: I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: The guy in the back was my cousin Carl. We call him too tall Carl, because wherever he goes, his head is over towering. That's nine feet tall.

PERINO: That's never happened to me.

GUTFELD: Now, you're too short, Dana.

Andrea.

TANTAROS: Yes?

GUTFELD: He's got a problem. But do we have a worse problem in that we don't care?

TANTAROS: Oh, I think we care, I think people care. I think people who don't care should care, and I'll tell you why. He's running for public service, OK, to be a public servant. Is this conversation doing a service to the voters of New York, every time one of these politicians get into a sex scandal?

And you know what, his wife is standing by his side, I have to take issue with that, he says they were going through marital trouble. However, they posed for a glossy pictorial in People magazine.

GUTFELD: And New York Times.

TANTAROS: And if she knew what he was doing, which he said they did, they were having trouble, then she's in it, too. She wants to live in Gracie mansions, and that's all the two of them want -- power, lust, personal gain, they don't care about anything else.

GUTFELD: Bob, what do you think. You're a seasoned vet in both sides of this kind of story.

(LAUGHTER)

BECKEL: That's absolutely correct.

Let me just say a couple of things. One, what her motivation is, why she stands up there as many other wives have when their husbands have embarrassed them and themselves is beyond me. Why they don't pull a Lorena Bobbitt? I don't understand. If you don't understand that, look it up.

But I had 113 candidates in the course of my political career. About half of them had real problems. It was either money or sex.

PERINO: Alcohol.

BECKEL: Huh?

PERINO: Or drugs.

BECKEL: Drugs or alcohol.

PERINO: Or all three.

BECKEL: Then you put them together.

GUTFELD: Well, they lost.

BECKEL: No, they won -- most of them won. That's the worst part of it. I mean, I would be -- they started out to be fine. We would have an interview, OK, you're hired. Halfway through, I would say can we really put this idiot into Congress and we did.

PERINO: And you work so hard, look at the policies that resulted.

BECKEL: I had a guy that announced to me he was gay halfway through the campaign. I said you decided to tell me that now? He said, yes, but I don't want to tell anybody.

GUTFELD: You were living with him, Bob.

BECKEL: No, I went and got his old high school girlfriend to come out and say they were going to get married. And it worked.

PERINO: Bob.

BOLLING: New Jersey Governor --

GUTFELD: Jim McGreevey.

BOLLING: McGreevey. And I think the wife stood by him.

BECKEL: Yes, she did.

BOLLING: Eliot Spitzer, the wife stayed awhile.

You know, what it is, it's arrogance and power, though. You can just get away with it, you get reelected. And all it does is makes you more arrogant and desire the power more.

I can't imagine this guy mayor of New York now. He is probably going to win, but can you imagine --

PERINO: No, I don't think so.

BOLLING: He is going to blow up both scandals and still become mayor? I would hate to deal with that guy.

GUTFELD: Could be hilarious, though.

"The Five," we would have a story every day. Dana you were saying in break before the monologue that Anthony Weiner is a hero, and we should look up to him. I thought that was strange.

PERINO: Yes, and I'm looking forward to getting my first interview with him. It will exclusive here on "The Five." OK. Here's the thing -- magazine and TV profiles about you are not because they like you, it is like at a carnival. When you have the freak show, everybody is waiting to see what kind of train wreck this is going to be.

Also I liked what Pete Wayner (ph) had to say. Today, he wrote that, "Weiner is chronically unfaithful, reckless, impulsive, and a serial liar. Even if he has asked forgiveness, I don't think the important job of being mayor of New York is, that we should put it with, because you know six months after he moves in the Gracie Mansion we will be doing stories like this."

BECKEL: Let me say to close this block out, I want -- sorry. I want us to recognize there are an awful lot of elected officials who are good people, do their jobs, don't have these problems that actually are public servants, and there are a lot of public servants for government who do a very good job. You get Weiner, to cast this over the people doing public service when there are a lot of good doing public service.

BOLLING: But the difference here is, when you elect a mayor, you literally write out a check and you send that man your money, your hard earned dollars to spend, and you trust he is going to do things --

BECKEL: I wouldn't lose sleep. He has as much chance of winning as Greg does.

BOLLING: How much trust can you have in a guy like this?

BECKEL: Zero.

BOLLING: So, why would you hand over something as important --

BECKEL: Nobody is going to hand it over. He is going to get beat bad.

TANTAROS: One thing he has done by a politician besides putting the sexual stuff aside, can anyone name --

(CROSSTALK)

TANTAROS: A couple of months ago that he had no record.

PERINO: Remember when the story first broke, he lied and said, no, it is not true, but he actually convinced some of his congressional colleagues to lie for him. That was unseemly.

BECKEL: I have to tell you, he raised $4 million and putting it in the bank waiting to run for mayor.

GUTFELD: That's what his career is, always running. He is running for something and he's running from something.

PERINO: And from himself.

GUTFELD: From himself.

BECKEL: What a nice way to end it.

GUTFELD: Yes, we need more public servants, not pubic servants.

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