NPR's Nina Totenberg: 'If His Name Weren't Weiner, Would We Still Be Talking About This?'

NPR's Nina Totenberg on Friday may have asked one of the silliest questions raised since the Weinergate sex scandal began about two weeks ago.

Appearing on PBS's "Inside Washington," Totenberg actually said, "If his name weren’t Weiner, would we still be talking about this?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: I have a question. If his name weren’t Weiner, would we still be talking about this?

MARK SHIELDS, PBS: I think we would because of the factor you raised and that is the ickiness. I mean, everywhere you turn there’s further evidence of just how debased the conversation was, and that this was with strangers, and the images that he sent over.

TOTENBERG: But his name makes him a subject of public ridicule and bad jokes every single day. Every comic in America is dining out on him.

And this is how the liberal mind works.

This scandal isn't about a Congressman sending lewd pictures to young women over the Internet.

It's all about the name of the guilty party and its comic association to male genitalia.

You think she'd feel that way if Weiner was Republican?