Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “‘I Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’” (editorial, June 7):

It is incomprehensible to me that The Times believes that Representative Anthony D. Weiner should resign only if he “broke the law or abused the resources of his office.”

First, any elected representative who engages in what you rightly call “a profoundly squalid and offensive pattern of conduct” of any sort should resign, because his or her presence demeans and delegitimizes the legislature in which he or she serves.

Second, how can he adequately represent his constituents when he is both a national joke and a national pariah? His constituents, his city and his party deserve an advocate who carries no such baggage.

That he did not resign immediately after being caught engaging in such conduct—and lying about it—shows that his concern is not for his constituents or his professed causes, but for his ego.

DAVID MACHLOWITZ
Westfield, N.J., June 7, 2011