Weiner Peters Out, Resigns Congressional Seat

It took a little longer than it should have taken, but U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) finally came to his senses and has resigned his congressional seat in the wake of the Twitter sex scandal that is feeding the public's image of Washington, D.C. as a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. From Politico:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign from his seat in Congress, heeding calls from President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and dozens of other congressional Democrats, sources confirm to POLITICO. The resignation ends nearly three weeks of tumultuous political controversy since the New York congressman sent a lewd picture of himself over Twitter which he claimed at first was a result of a hack, and later admitted he had sent himself.

According to two sources, Weiner made up his mind to resign Wednesday night, and shortly after began making calls to inform them of his decision. Weiner called DCCC chair Steve Israel — who had also called for his resignation — on Wednesday night at the White House picnic to inform him and Pelosi that he had decided to resign on Thursday.

House Democrats were set to strip Weiner of his committee assignments on Thursday morning, though they were not officially informed before a meeting in the Capitol Thursday morning with a White House liaison. But the news spread quickly following media reports . . .

Weiner’s resignation comes after his wife Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, returned from a week-long trip to Africa with her boss. Weiner had said he would wait until Abedin returned before making a final decision on his plans. She returned home early Wednesday.

The resignation caps an almost three-week frenzy that began when a photo of a man’s crotch was posted publicly on his Twitter account. For a week, he claimed he had been “hacked,” but at a tear-filled press conference last week he admitted that he had intended to send the photo to a Seattle college student and that he had sent that and other racy photos to at least six women over the last three years. More photos have since become public, including one of his naked genitals and others of him posing in the House gym.