Everybody it seems these days -- from Ivy League professors to Internet consultants to ubiquitous "political strategists" -- is a "crisis management expert."

No matter the crisis -- from political sex scandal to Wall Street insider trading to Hollywood celebrity train wreck -- these experts produce a handy formula to rescue the suspected sinner from eternal ignominy.

Warning: Don't believe 'em.

In a crisis, one size most definitely doesn't fit all; every crisis response must be tailored to accommodate the special circumstances that each situation presents. For good reason, how you respond in your crisis may be vastly different than how I respond to mine.

Just consider the two hottest political sex scandals of the day, the New York City mayoral campaign of Anthony Weiner and the San Diego clinging-to-power of Mayor Robert Filner.  

  • Weiner Sizzles with Full Frontal Communications

With his most recent revelations of continuing sexting activity even after stepping down from Congress and seeking therapy, Anthony Weiner's bid for New York mayor should've been over.

But it isn't.

Clearly, Weiner has been hurt; his poll numbers dropped 10%, with his bombshell acknowledgement, and he's now running second in the Democrat primary to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. But he's still "second," even after all the embarrassment. And all it takes is two to force a runoff.

The reason: He continues to make himself available for any and every question that journalists and critics throw at him.

Weiner's crisis management strategy (not unlike his sexting philosophy) is based on full disclosure. When someone asks him how he expects New Yorkers to trust him, how he could repeat mistakes immediately after decrying them and how he could be such a dirt bag, the candidate stays toe-to-toe, confronts the questioner, and answers the inquiry.

He doesn't duck. He doesn't evade. He doesn't, ahem, "shrink" from any of the tough questions.

Weiner's crisis management strategy – designed especially for his most unprecedented situation is three-pronged:

1. Confront every nasty question and let the chips fall where they may.

2. Try to turn the conversation back to the issues, where Weiner -- who is arguably smarter, more creative and more articulate than any of the mediocrities against whom he is pitted – holds an edge.

3. Keep his wife, Huma, by his side.

The latter, of course, is key to Weiner's chances. If Huma bails, Weiner is cooked.

But if she stays with him, if the bimbo eruptions of his former sexting partners recede, if his poll numbers stabilize, then Anthony Weiner, as wacky as it sounds, still has a chance to be the Democrat candidate for New York mayor.

If so, his availability, outspokenness, and willingness to take every question will have won the crisis day.

  • Filner Gropes On by Going Silent

By contrast, the San Diego Groper-in-Chief Filner has appropriately gone "radio silent" to try to hold onto his position.
Filner held a "press conference" last Friday that was interrupted by line feed difficulties, which forced him to repeat his statement of contrition before the assembled cameras and live national TV audience.

Filner's "Take 2" press conference was a metaphor for his mayoralty. The first Democrat mayor in San Diego in 20 years, he has bungled the opportunity since taking office last November.

Not only has he been charged by various women of "violating," "groping," "grabbing," "intimidating," and "disrespecting" them, he has also been accused of rewarding a campaign contributor with a government construction contract and taking a $10,000 junket to France courtesy of San Diego tax payers.

Bottom line: Filner is a disaster, whose ouster has been urged by his own party.

But at 70, with no political future beyond the present, Mayor Filner is hanging on for dear life, refusing to leave or even temporarily step down; instead, he has decided to spend two weeks this summer at anti-groping rehab. (Unclear if his clinic might be in France!)

So there is literally nothing the mayor can say to defend keeping his position. So he's chosen not to say a word, short of the contrite statement he read at the press conference.

He will answer no questions, entertain no interviews, allow no access.

And for Filner's only objective, i.e. to stay in power unless he is forced out, his crisis management strategy of silence is absolutely right.

There's an old political crisis management aphorism that, "Silence grants the point," meaning you should talk rather than clamming up.

But in the case of the mayor of San Diego, silently groping with the possibility of losing his job, one size most assuredly doesn't fit all.