Weiner Really Is A Weiner

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) proved what a real weiner he is. After denying for more than a week that he tweeted a lewd photo of himself, claiming his computer account had been hacked, Weiner held a press conference late this afternoon at which he admitted he made "terrible mistakes" and had not been honest. He now admits that he tweeted both explicit messages and photos to at least six women who were not his wife. He admitted that some of the lewd messages and photos had been sent following his marriage to his wife last year. Unbelievably, Weiner is refusing to resign his office. "I deeply regret what I've done, but I'm not resigning," he told reporters in response to questioning. He denied using any government computers to transmit any matters of a sexual nature. He also claimed that none of the women with whom he communicated sexual matters were under age to the best of his knowledge, although he acknowledged he was relying on their representations of how old they were.

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who first broke the news about Weiner's lewd tweets and who has been accused of being part of a right wing conspiracy to bring down Weiner, stepped up to the podium before Weiner spoke to address the reporters gathered. He advised them that he had in his possession even more embarrassing and graphic sexual photos that Weiner had taken of himself and sent to one of the women that he had refrained from releasing up to this point. Breitbart demanded an apology from Weiner for fomenting a backlash against him over the past week that suggested he had been a part of an illicit effort to hack into Weiner's account. Weiner only apologized to Breitbart upon prompting under questioning by a large number of reporters gathered for the press conference at a Manhattan hotel room.

Weiner was not joined by his wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at his press conference. He claims she stands behind him and urged him to get the truth out at his press conference. Before Abedin married Weiner, tabloid magazines had linked her romantically to Clinton, for whom she has worked very closely for many years. Weiner insisted he had never had sex with another woman outside of his marriage. While he said his wife was very unhappy and disappointed with him, she has no plans to leave him. He said he doesn't do drugs and wasn't drinking at the time he engaged in sending lewd messages and photos of himself over the Internet.

Democratic leaders called upon Republican members, such as Rep. Christopher Lee (R-New York) Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), when they were found to have engaged in sexually inappropriately conduct. Rep. Lee just resigned earlier this year after a shirtless photo he posted of himself on Craigslist while looking for women to date. Sen. Ensign resigned rather than face an ethics complaint about his relations out of marriage with another woman and efforts he undertook to cover up that relationship using his Senate office. Rep. Foley also resigned when information about inappropriate exchanges of a sexual nature he had with male congressional pages came to light. Weiner insisted the exchanges he had were strictly consensual and not of a predatory nature.  It will be interesting to see if the media apologizes to its treatment of Breitbart's reporting on this topic over the past week, and if they will hold Weiner's feet to the fire with the same fervor they've held Republican in similar situations.



UPDATE: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation into the Weiner matter. Perhaps Democrats won't stand behind him the way they typically fall in line behind their politicians accused of sexual misconduct.