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.

She's Back

Just like clockwork, if there is a sex scandal involving a male celebrity or politician, you can bet on Gloria Allred holding a press conference to announce she is representing one of the women victims. This time it's porn actress Ginger Lee, who claims she received unsolicited sextings from U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner. Lee claims Weiner asked her to lie about the messages he sent to her. I'm not sure how she's been damaged by this, but I'm sure Allred will figure out some claim before the dust all settles. From TMZ:

"Ms. Lee has asked me to issue this statement, because an individual has threatened her with a release of another statement which purports to be from her, but which she has not authorized."

Allred would not say who the individual is or what the nature of the threat is, but says, "Ginger would like it to be known that she has not authorized any person, except me, her attorney, to issue statements on her behalf."

Allred adds, "Any unauthorized statement may contain inaccuracies and should be viewed with suspicion and not published."

Weiner Used House Gym As Backdrop To Take Lewd Photos

TMZ has obtained a number of lewd photos U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) took of himself using the House gym in the Rayburn Office Building as a backdrop. Weiner took the photos of himself using his Blackberry and mirrors in the gym's locker room and gym floor. They're the kind of photos that have gotten a number of professional athletes and celebrities into hot water lately with the rise of Internet social media as a way of communicating. Weiner is still resisting pressure from his fellow Democrats to resign. Instead, he has announced he is entering rehab. Weiner has at least one defender in the ethically-challenged U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). Rangel says other members of Congress have done more immoral things than Weiner. At least he "wasn't going with prostitutes or little boys" Rangel said. Weiner's constituents also seem somewhat unmoved by the scandal. According to a poll, 56% of his constituents think he should remain in office.

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.