Watch Anthony Weiner try to figure out why he's fighting Sean Hannity

(Image credit: Fox News)

last updated 8 January 2015

Let's be fair to Anthony Weiner: There is probably no good, exculpatory explanation for why he sank his political career by sexting with young female admirers. But he should at least try to come up with a plausible rationale, especially if he insists on doing TV interviews. Weiner's face-off with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell was bad enough — and that was supposed to be friendly territory — so why did he agree to appear on Fox News' Hannity?

Like O'Donnell, Sean Hannity started off by asking the Democratic former congressman and New York City mayoral candidate why he lapsed back into risqué tweeting between resigning from Congress and his mayoral bid. "What the hell are you thinking?" he asked. Weiner replied he doesn't want to talk about himself — he talked about the sexting ad nauseam during the mayoral race — and that he was invited on to talk about health care and the government shutdown.

Of course, Weiner and Hannity spent almost exactly half the show talking about Weiner.

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If you want to understand what's going on in Washington, the second four minutes of the segment will give you a taste, nothing more. If you want good television, watch above.

If Alan Colmes were half as pugnacious as Weiner, Hannity & Colmes might still be on the air.

Hannity accused Wiener of agreeing to come on his show as an audition to replace Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Well, Weiner has a short window of time here: He clearly has the wit and vim to make it on cable news, but if the word gets out that he won't talk about his sexting issues, the interview invitations will probably dry up.

Weiner might want to start coming up with a better answer for "What the hell were you thinking?"

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.