Ah, politics, our finest example of power masquerading as public service.

Anthony Weiner wants to be the next mayor of New York City. Bob Filner would like to remain the mayor of San Diego. Both of them are smart, politically savvy and experienced. And if integrity were money, they’d both be flat broke.

Weiner can’t keep his wiener off of YOUTube and loves virtual sexual experiences. But that, he says, doesn’t mean he can’t be a great mayor. Besides, it happened a long time ago, way back in 2012, shortly after he resigned from Congress for the same wanderings of his wayward wienie.

Filner, the newly elected and beleaguered mayor of San Diego, has a long, rich history of sexually harassing women, with particular emphasis on his staff and anyone else that he encounters in the course conducting his selfless “public service.” After all, a man isn’t a real man unless he’s a misogynist. Right?

The media, always focusing on the symptoms that make for sensationalism and ratings while ignoring the real underlying issues, is having a field day with these guys, and in the case of Wiener, his wife, Huma Abedin as well. Filner doesn’t have a wife and to make matters more interesting, his fiancée recently dumped him as well (kudos to her).

The real issue with these pathetic examples of would be leaders are – Values.    

And in the arena of Values, both Weiner and Filner share one important one. They both value POWER. For them, power trumps integrity, honesty, trust, truth, and service to others.

If their behavior were occurring in the private sector they would both be out on their ass in a heartbeat (remember the former CEOs of Hewlett Packard and Best Buy). If they had any real integrity, they would have already stepped down. But this is politics, where people build entire careers around never telling the truth. Power is their drug of choice. They can’t live without it.

So voters and the politicians that represent them(most of whom also embrace Power as one of their Core Values), are weighing the plight of these two in terms of how their conduct affects them and their political party. They would be well advised to come to grips with the real issue. Can someone who has gone this far over the edge in living one of his Core Values (Power) govern and lead effectively, truly represent the people of New York and San Diego and honestly claim that his true motivation is public service?

And what is the lesson for the rest of us? Tell the truth. Don’t think for a moment that your words can make people overlook your behavior. And don’t ever believe that you can build trust on the quicksand of dishonesty.

These two delusional morons are poster boys for how not to be.