What is a Weasel?

Over the past week or so I have focused on some folks in our culture pointing out people on Wall Street,  Sports Street and Church Street who (IMO) have behaved like weasels.
A few of you have commented saying:

Bob, what do you have against these cute little weasels? They have a bad rap. They are clever and sneaky for self preservation.

I think there are weasels is every organization and I won't make excuses for them.

I do have trouble getting behind a post labeling people as weasels whether they be sports figures or pastors.

I'm very "weasely" in a lot of my behavior.

None of us are very admirable when the things we wish to hide are laid bare.

So I thought that I would check this idea of what it means to be a weasel using the dictionary. Here are a few excerpts:

• a cunning, sneaky person.
• a person regarded as sneaky or treacherous.
• a naive user, one who deliberately or accidentally does things that are stupid or ill-advised. Roughly synonymous with loser.
• to evade an obligation, duty, or the like

In this context I might be a bit off in my characterizations of some I have labeled as weasels. Perhaps, like many of us, some of these have exhibited weasel like behavior as characterized by those last two bullets.

Unfortunately, I think that the first two bullets are applicable to some that I have bestowed the weasel label on. There are those in our culture that not only sometimes act like a weasel but live their lives like a weasel consistently displaying sneaky and treacherous behavior.. and some of these are in high profile positions.

And I have to say that.. from what I know of you.. you all are not weasels.. but.. like me.. you may sometimes do things that are stupid or ill-advised - in that sense I guess that we all exibit weasel like behavior at times :)