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Many readers already know that late last week, a twitter account belonging to Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner sent out a picture of a man's underwear showing a tumescent male member, normally the type of distasteful story we would prefer to ignore. However, the changing story offered by the Congressman, known for his self-righteous criticism of political opponents, requires coverage. As the old saying goes, it's not the scandal, it's the cover-up that counts.

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/05/28/weinergate-congressman-claims-facebook-hacked-as-lewd-photo-hits-twitter/

Here is the original post that appeared on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government site, noting the existence of the photo, and also the fact that it was deleted from the Congressman's yfrog (picture hosting) account, as well as the Congressman's later tweet claiming his account was "hacked." Subsequently, the Congressman also used the word "prank" to describe the incident, possibly a significant change, as hacking would be a federal crime.

The Congressman, putatively the victim here, has lawyered up. Meanwhile, calls have been heard from conservative websites to bring in the FBI, which has jurisdiction over cybercrime (which is what hacking the Congressman's twitter account would be).

But so far, Rep. Weiner has avoided law enforcement involvement, which is quite odd, conksidering he is claiming to be the victim of someone impersonating him online.

Alana Goodman of Commentary offers this sage advice.

Liberal bloggers should be the ones leading the campaign for an official investigation. Many of them have claimed that Andrew Breitbart, and other conservative activists, are responsible for hacking into Weiner's official congressional Twitter account. If that's the case, then let's make sure these right-wing hackers are forced to face the legal consequences of their actions.

This is a fairly customary process. After President Obama's official Twitter account was hacked, the FBI managed to track the hacker all the way to France, where he was tried and convicted. If Weiner's account was compromised, there's a good chance that law enforcement will find the person who did it.

But if it turns out that Weiner is unwilling to allow an official, transparent investigation, then he can't expect journalists to stop digging for the truth on their own. After all, the public has legitimate questions, and the media is only doing its job.

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Saying at one moment he was hacked and at another that he was the victim of a prank isn't a change of story.  I've had friends that have hacked other friends facebook and myspace accounts to post embarrassing pictures or make funny comments.  These were both hacks and pranks.  Its annoying how the author is trying to make a conspiracy out of nothing.  Why would he post a picture of a **** on his twitter?  Why would some one else want to (couldn't have to do with his name)?

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well let's hope the FBI investigates then, so he can clear his name up. very serious charges in doing something like that to a congressman's account. i did think it odd though, how when asked if the picture was of him, he declined to answer.

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Showing a pic of someone pitching a tent on the twitter account of someone called "weiner" is sort of inevitable though isn't it? :-P

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http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-may-31-2011/distinguished-member-of-congress?xrs=share_copy

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the simple fact that he refuses to answer the direct question of if it's his body in the pic and whether or not he sent the pic, is itself an answer IMO. and the media coverage is just sooo laissez faire and casual.

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What comes around goes around I guess.  

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The story of Rep. Anthony D. Weiner keeps getting weirder and weirder.

One day after vowing not to talk about the lewd photo sent from his Twitter account to a Seattle college student, the New York Democrat went on the offensive Wednesday, saying flatly: “I didn’t send that picture out” and that it was the work of a hacker. But he also said he couldn’t say “with certitude” that the photo wasn’t him.

The feisty, often combative New Yorker then took an uncharacteristically passive stance in declaring he would not seek a federal investigation of the alleged hacker whose work could sully his name. Hacking into a social media account, such as Facebook or Twitter, is illegal.

Mr. Weiner dismissed the incident as a “prank” unworthy of law enforcement’s time. He did say he hired an attorney to advise him and a private security firm to investigate the incident.

“If it turns out there’s something larger going on here, we’ll take the requisite steps,” said the 46-year-old lawmaker.

Mr. Weiner pushed back against questions about the nature of his relationship with the college woman who was sent the tightly cropped shot of a man’s crotch clad in gray underwear.

“I don’t know her, she doesn’t know me,” said Mr. Weiner, who is married to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton officiated the marriage last July.

Mr. Weiner - considered a contender in the 2013 New York City mayor’s race - predicted that the internal investigation would clear up the matter. “We’re going to find out what happened,” he said.

Computer security specialists say data logs at the San Francisco-based Twitter would allow investigators to quickly pinpoint the unique Internet address from which the photo originated.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police said she was getting calls from reporters about the story but otherwise had not been contacted about the security breach.

“We don’t have an open, active investigation,” she said.

tell me this guy isn't guilty of SOMETHING! and then i love how he just tries to write it off, as in, "oh yeah, we'll look into privately. no need to involve the authorities, if anything else comes up, we'll let you know." really?

i think this picture is of him, and i think he has more sexually suggestive photos (hence the deleting of all his "yfrog" photos the same day) and i think he was having some sort of inappropriate relationship with this young woman.

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Rep. Anthony Weiner struggled to explain how a picture of somebody's bulging underwear briefly appeared on his Twitter account, claiming in a back-to-back string of interviews that he was clearly hacked -- but hinting the photograph could have been an image of him.

"I have photographs. I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me," he said in one cable news interview, asked whether he'd ever snapped a photo like that of himself.

In another interview, Weiner acknowledged "it could be" the case that one of his private photos spilled onto the Internet. Or, he said, one could have been manipulated or pulled in from "somewhere else."

Asked by Fox News about the origin of the image, Weiner said: "We're concerned about saying anything definitively."

Asked the same question again, Weiner snapped: "You know ... we've been sitting down for a brief moment and you're already asking if there are pictures of me in my drawers."

Weiner sought to downplay the entire incident and put it to rest after days of intense coverage. The New York Democratic congressman has raised questions by not calling in the Capitol Police or other federal authorities to investigate what he claims is some combination of a hack and a prank.

A former Justice Department computer crimes prosecutor said it would not cost much to request an investigation from the FBI. The former official said if Weiner had called the FBI when the story broke, the public would already know where the Tweet originated.

ding ding ding!

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Sounds like tin-foil hat time.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
Sounds like tin-foil hat time.

tin foil hat time? dude, look, the picture itself isn't that big of a deal. but it's the aversion to the truth by this so called representative that's bullcrap. i mean in this last article, he all but admitted that there were pictures of him in his underwear.

"I have photographs. I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me,"

In another interview, Weiner acknowledged "it could be" the case that one of his private photos spilled onto the Internet.

not to mention, he is alleging that a crime took place, yet wanting to keep the authorities out of it. why? because if they did get involved, and he falsely claimed that he was hacked, then he would be committing a crime. this is the also the reason he's skirting around actually giving a yes or no answer to anything. he's a typical weasel.

remember this photo that chris lee put on craigslist recently?



the result?

Rep. Chris Lee, R-N.Y., abruptly resigned Wednesday after the gossip website Gawker disclosed that the married congressman had e-mailed a shirtless picture of himself to a woman he met through Craigslist.

now that's tame compared to the (aptly named) weiner photo. wise up hombre. this isn't some conspiracy theory, it's right there in front of you.

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Anthony Weiner's Survival Will Take More Than An Apology
by Frank James
NPR News

Rep. Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman who on Monday admitted that he lied when he denied sending lewd photos to and "sexting" with six women over the last three years, says he's not resigning.

Maybe he can survive. But events are largely out of his hands now as they have been ever since the scandal broke over the Memorial Day weekend.

Here are some reasons why he could get past this and some reasons why he might not.

Let's start with the reasons he could hang on.
First, though deeply wounded, Weiner has long ties with voters in his district, now serving in his seventh term.  

It's a solidly Democratic district which includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Weiner won his 2012 re-election with 61 percent of the vote during a wave election in which Republicans won large.

So he could have significant erosion in his support and theoretically still win an election.

Also, we're talking New York here. New Yorkers are probably still less easily shocked than people in many other parts of the nation. So he's got that going for him.

Second, while it's more typical for lawmakers to resign or be forced out after a sex scandal erupts, there are instances when lawmakers have survived scandals.

Gerry Studds of Massachusetts had a scandal that was indisputably worse than Weiner's, at least based on what we know so far about the New York congressman's actions.

Studds had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old congressional page that became public in 1983, an arguably less-tolerant time than now.

But Studds toughed it out and survived, only leaving Congress in 1996 when he retired.

Weiner apparently intends, at least as of now to endure the humiliation and try to lose himself in his job.

Third, it's possible Weiner could get enough House Democrats to rally around him to survive. His fellow Democrats could decide that he has been contrite enough and has done the party enough service over the years, going after Republicans with hammer and tongs, that he deserves a second chance.

Granted, that may be the trickiest part of his immediate hopes to survive since his fellow Democrats aren't exactly in the happiest mood right now, in the House minority as they are and hoping to work their way back into the majority.

Which leads us directly to the first reason why he may not survive. House Democrats sense that the Republican majority may be vulnerable because of their controversial proposal to overhaul Medicare.

Weiner could distract from Democratic efforts to keep Republicans on the defensive.

For Weiner, the first hint of how quickly his hopes to remain in Congress may come apart, came from Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi who asked for a House Ethics Committee investigation. She is sending him a message. He is not bigger that the House Democratic Conference. Her statement:

"I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents.

"I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred."

Weiner and his fellow Democrats will have to deal with non-stop video of his interviews in which he lied about not sending the photos and texts. Again, not good for Democrats trying to win the messaging war with Republicans.

Meanwhile, Republicans aren't going to sit still and allow Weiner to try and rehabilitate himself.

As MSNBC's Chris Matthews said after Weiner's Monday afternoon news conference, Democrats are going to be on the "Weiner ticket" if he remains in the House. Republicans will make sure of that.

Republicans will likely note how quickly the married Chris Lee, a New York Republican, quit his House seat after a photo of a shirtless Lee that he sent to a woman showed up on the Gawker web site.

Secondly, there are more pictures of Weiner. Andrew Breitbart, the conservative web publisher, has said he possesses a downright sordid photo of Weiner that he hasn't released because he doesn't want to hurt Weiner's family. The congressman admits such a photo or photos could exist.

Any such photo or photos in digital form won't long stay off the web. Once it winds up there for global consumption, it would likely be impossible for Weiner to remain in office.

Third, it would be extraordinary if Weiner doesn't get a primary challenger. There's still a lot of time between now and the 2012 primary election.

But New York has a lot of ambitious local politicians who can imagine themselves as a member of the state's congressional delegation.

So, again, it would be surprising if Weiner didn't have to contend with a significant challenge. And that could end his career even if he's able to soldier on over the next year.

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well, well, well, i don't wanna say it told you so, but...  i couldn't believe i was hearing what i was hearing when watching the news conference. i thought there was no way he would own up to it, but then it became apparent that he was doing this just because more pictures were coming out that he couldn't deny, like this one.



and i love how he basically said that his wife was cool with it, and said that what he did was "dumb" (according to him), and that pretty much means its okay. he was bad for lying, but it's time to get back to work. it must be nice not having any moral standards to live up to. let a conservative try to get away with that. the media would slam him as would his constitutents. but the same media was trying to help weiner explain everything away before his admission, and hell, even after. last night on nbc nightly news, brian williams said flat out that he wasn't going to cover the story, because it wasn't important enough. which, i have to give him credit. most times there's a story the media doesn't want to cover, it just doesn't say anything, and still doesn't cover it.

and it's just disgusting to me to hear the narrative being spun in liberal circles about how he's such a hero for coming out and being honest, and all the poor little alligator tears, and oh the humiliation was enough of a price to pay, and he's so courageous for facing all those reporters questions.

just makes me wanna puke!

whether or not he survives this, in a way, depends on whether or not the democratic leadership decides to cannibalize him, but in a way it doesn't. he would surely never face expulsion, and if a got some sort of little reprimand, it really wouldn't matter. it would all be up to his constituents on whether or not to re-elect him, and to be honest, i would almost be surprised if he weren't re-elected.

it's a sad statement of just how morally corrupt our culture has become. you know, i hear people talk about how all these sex scandals by politicians erodes public faith in their elected representatives, but then the public are the ones putting these shmucks into office. substance has gone out the window. it's all about packaging and the catch phrases, and the people eat it up.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

it's a sad statement of just how morally corrupt our culture has become.

Yep.  Dems dont care though.  That's why a shirtless photo of a GOP representative has to resign, but lewdphotos and an admission of 'sexting' can take place and NBC gives it a pass.  And from what I heard, there remains an unpublished photo of a (quote) totally **** sexually excited Congressman that that ws sent as well.  And I hope it remains unpublished.

But think of what these Congresspeople are doing!  Thety are setting themselves up for blackmail!  Think if a chinese agent had gotten hold of this before we'd ever heard about it.  What happens if another Congressman or Senator does something dumb like this and an enemy tries to use it to blackmail him for security info?  Or tells him you better vote a certain way from now on or we'll release this and destroy your family and your career....

These guys would never have made it during the Cold War.  Soviets would have been all over this.