Saturday Massacre: Pelosi, Israel, Wasserman Schultz call for Weiner to resign

[Bull Moose Base]

I don't think it will be very long before Weiner will be forced to resign his job as congressman.  It is completely inappropriate for a sitting congressman to also be mayor of New York and as soon as New Yorkers see him sworn in as mayor, his career as a congressman is kaput.  As for the party of Andrew Breitbart, Ashley Todd, Donald Trump, and Nikki Haley fans, keep up the good work.

[Bull Moose Base]

Dailykosers (instead of journalists; Jon Stewart is vindicated) figured out you can trigger a tweet from someone by mailing a photo to their yfrog email.  A glitch they moved to correct as soon as it was exposed.  Which is not quite hacking but is impersonating.  I think this mystery is easy actually.  Either Weiner's account where he keeps photos was hacked or he at some point sent the photo to someone.  Weiner's twitter stalkers got a hold of it somehow, emailed it to his yfrog as a tweet @ the Seattle girl in order to make it look like an accidental DM to her.  This would explain Weiner's confident denial that he never sent the tweet cum dodge about if the photo is really him.

Also it kinda undermines his "I'm not going to call the police and waste their time" argument about the hacking

It's not exactly equivalent steps: open an investigation vs. come up and here and get this person out of my office.

[Bull Moose Base]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/mike-stack-weinergate-co-pilot-219073

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/dan-wolfe-anthony-weiner-weinergate-632095

[Bull Moose Base]

That the tweet linking to Weiner's picture was in his feed is not at all in dispute.

But that he sent it out is.

[Bull Moose Base]

That the tweet linking to Weiner's picture was in his feed is not at all in dispute.

But that he sent it out is.

There's no proof that he didn't, and if Weiner truly thought the vast right-wing conspiracy hacked into his twitter account and sent the photo, Weiner would have had no problem asking the FBI or Capitol Police to investigate.  That he didn't and continues to not directly answer questions pretty much tells you everything any rational person needs to know.

The simplest explanation is almost always the correct one.

Guilty until proven innocent, eh? Garrow is rolling over in his grave...

The presumption of innocence applies to jurors hearing cases about real crimes in a court of law, not whether one thinks a sitting Congressman committed a non-crime - say, something like send a link to a lewd photo of himself to an adult - in the court of public opinion.

Let's see... There's a link to a lewd photo of a man in his underwear in Weiner's Twitter feed, which the Congressman himself controls.   First he claims his Twitter feed was hacked, then pranked - either way, likely an actual crime - but refuses to go to the Capitol Police or FBI over the incident.   He can't say with certitude that the photograph in question isn't of him.  And Congressman Weiner is often to first to blame a vast right wing conspiracy over everything - which he isn't doing here.  What inference would most rational people draw from those facts?  
 
Weiner's actions are the most damning evidence that he sent the link to the photo, most likely as a botched attempt to send a private DM.  The simplest explanation is almost always the correct one.

Why is it his responsibility to try to use FBI to defend his reputation from being framed in a sex smear?  The rightwing has latched onto Weiner's reluctance to call the FBI as confirmation of his guilt yet they celebrate Nikki Haley as a conservative hero even though she's never pursued a lawsuit against either of the two people who alleged affairs with her?  (And unlike Weiner, she vowed to resign if the allegations turned out to be true.)  Nor have they wondered why John Boehner hasn't sued those who've alleged he's been carrying on an affair with a lobbyist?  Apparently, only when liberals are defamed, is it suspicious to ignore it.

People on facebook are hacked all the time and have things posted in their names all the time.  How many of these people call the FBI as opposed to just deleting the post?  The media has failed to report how easy it is to trigger a tweet "from" someone.  Even were the photo Weiner and he were to be embarrassed about it or other things opening an investigation might reveal, that doesn't eliminate the strong possibility he never sent this photo and has thus been framed.

You cite Weiner's past suspicion of rightwing conspiracies as something to be considered.  But it's only fair to also consider Andrew Breitbart's actual past involvement in rightwing conspiracies, specifically, operations to edit tape to frame liberal targets and make them appear to be saying something they were not.

Either way, if Nikki Haley can be elected governor of conservative South Carolina, still reeling from Sanford's sex scandal, amidst strong circumstantial evidence she had an affair, I really doubt New York City will hesitate to elect Weiner mayor, even if it were far more likely he actually sent it than now appears to be the case.

[Bull Moose Base]

Breitbart has been associated with conspiracies to frame liberals before so that has to be considered when speculating plausible scenarios.  You were the one who said Weiner's past behavior should be considered.  I don't see why the established lack of credibility of Breitbart, Dan Wolfe and Mike Stack should not also be considered to cast doubt on their version of events.

Why is it his responsibility to try to use FBI to defend his reputation from being framed in a sex smear?  The rightwing has latched onto Weiner's reluctance to call the FBI as confirmation of his guilt yet they celebrate Nikki Haley as a conservative hero even though she's never pursued a lawsuit against either of the two people who alleged affairs with her?  (And unlike Weiner, she vowed to resign if the allegations turned out to be true.)  Nor have they wondered why John Boehner hasn't sued those who've alleged he's been carrying on an affair with a lobbyist?  Apparently, only when liberals are defamed, is it suspicious to ignore it.

People on facebook are hacked all the time and have things posted in their names all the time.  How many of these people call the FBI as opposed to just deleting the post?  The media has failed to report how easy it is to trigger a tweet "from" someone.  Even were the photo Weiner and he were to be embarrassed about it or other things opening an investigation might reveal, that doesn't eliminate the strong possibility he never sent this photo and has thus been framed.

Anthony Weiner isn't a just a "person on Facebook".  He is a sitting Congressman who publicly claimed his Twitter account was hacked.  If Weiner truly thought he was framed by the vast right wing conspiracy, he'd be repeating that daily while going to the cops - because Weiner is one of the most partisan members of Congress, and attacking Republicans is what he does daily.  But he isn't doing that.  I wonder why?

Who said Weiner believes he's the victim of a vast, rightwing conspiracy as opposed to a lone smearer or very small group?  What is to gain by calling law enforcement?  Clearing his name?  Well, that seems the same objective Nikki Haley could pursue if she wanted to explain why she had many long, phone calls in the middle of the night with Will Folks.  But she isn't pursuing it and conservatives aren't pressing her on that.  As to why Weiner wouldn't pursue it, maybe he anticipates that any investigation would intrude on his privacy and reveal embarrassing things about him that aren't worth it just to prove he didn't send this tweet.  So what?

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Well, Breitbart has been involved in operations to frame liberals so, yes, it's not inconceivable he was again.  I didn't dispute that the tweet went out on Weiner's twitter feed directed at this woman in Seattle but it is easy for someone else (e.g. someone looking to get Weiner who'd been tweeting accusations about him for weeks) to trigger a tweet "from" Weiner that appeared to be from Weiner himself.  So there's (as usual) enough doubts about the rightwing's version of events to discard it.  I find it difficult to believe Weiner would not have noticed these guys stalking him and accusing him of an affair for weeks or that if he and this Cordova woman had in fact communicated in an inappropriate way, that this girl would not have communicated the harassment she was receiving from Dan Wolfe and Joe Stack and they wouldn't have exercised more caution.  Would she have called Weiner her "boyfriend" on twitter if there actually was a relationship?  Not likely.  I suppose we should assume this woman's statement is a lie too? It seems way more likely Weiner's rightwing stalker's seized on that joke in choosing Cordova as the woman for them to use in their smear.

The majority of the Republican Party is very gullible people who continue to doubt Obama was born in the United States.  I don't see why Weiner would bother trying to persuade these people of anything.

[Bull Moose Base]

If Weiner were exposed to have behaved inappropriately for a husband, there's still little chance he'd resign (and no chance a Republican would win the district in 2012).  It would maybe hurt Weiner's frontrunner status in the primaries for the 2013 mayoral, though it could be hard for a rival to attack him without doing more damage to themselves than him.  And given that Spitzer resigned over sexual depravity and people were then horribly dissatisfied with Paterson, even if something worse came out, I'd largely expect New Yorkers to dismiss peccadilloes as having no correlation to an executive's job performance and elect him anyway.  Remember, more socially conservative upstate isn't part of the equation here.  Everyone in NYC presuming Ed Koch to be gay didn't stop them from electing him.  Not suggesting being gay is the same as infidelity, just pointing out New Yorkers largely don't give a f.

Jeez- I almost forgot about Giuliani!

[Bull Moose Base]

Well, if he thought that pic would turn someone- anyone- on, all bets are off about his judgment.

[Bull Moose Base]

lol

I mean... lol

This story has everything. Ev-ery little detail. It's like a work of post-modernist performance art. Only not sh!te.

Ha.

I definitely don't think Weiner could have killed story by admitting everything upfront.  And what does that mean?  That he tweeted original photo only or admitting the entire thing and all the sexting?  If it was the former, he'd still have to deny more then would have still gotten caught lying sort of.  If it was the latter, it would have been a media circus regardless.  Which is not to say that Weiner's initial lying didn't do more political damage to him.  I'm not sure he goes ahead and runs for mayor in 2013 rather than letting it all fade more.  And it's hard to imagine if his wife asked him not to run at this point, he would go ahead and do so if he wants to keep her.   But I think he could win if he ran.  I also don't think he'd lose a primary or general in 2012 but Democrats may well draw his district out of existence.