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

[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.

[cinyc]

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?

Weiner's legal issue isn't that he has been defamed or had an affair - it's that he has alleged someone hacked or pranked his Twitter account, either way, a crime.  Affairs aren't crimes.  And libel cases against public figures are almost impossible to win, so very few public figures ever bring them.

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Ah, yes! BREITBART, the scurrilous villain!  BREITBART is the one who tweeted the picture in question and framed Weiner!  Or made up the screen cap which shows the Weiner tweet!   Because we all know BREITBART just makes stuff up!  Oh wait, Tweetcongress.org also has evidence of the tweet in question? 

Still, it must be BREITBART'S fault!  It MUST be a right wing conspiracy!  Weiner couldn't have possibly tweeted the picture himself.  The most simple explanation is always wrong when BREITBART is involved - it's a CONSPIRACY!

[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.

[cinyc]

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.

Established lack of credibility of Andrew BREITBART?  Only in the mind of liberals with an axe to grind.  The "credibility" of Dan Wolfe has been established - unless you think TweetCongress is lying when they have an archive of the same tweet, too.  Dan Wolfe's identity is as irrelevant as yours, hiding behind the fake name "Joementum".  Dan Wolfe has every right to remain anonymous as you or I do.  And Mike Stack isn't even tangentially involved in the tweet story, despite attempts to shame him and others who dare speak out against a politician - just like the left's attempts to smear Joe the Plumber.

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Again, Nikki Haley is irrelevant.  Nobody hacked Nikki Haley.  Going to the police would do nothing to stop someone from spreading smears about her.  If Weiner went to the police, Twitter and Tweetdeck would quickly divulge the IP address of the person who allegedly framed him.  The law firm Weiner hired can't subpoena Twitter to release any such information.  So to clear his name, Weiner HAS to go to law enforcement.  That he's not interested in doing so tells me more about who sent the link to the photo than anything else - either Weiner or someone who Weiner authorized to tweet on his behalf.  If a hacker truly did it, the IP address would quickly show it, without any invasion of Weiner's privacy.  So Weiner should welcome an investigation.

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You have ZERO proof BREITBART did anything.  In any event, BREITBART hasn't framed anyone.  BREITBART has applied the same type of investigative techniques your liberal friends in the mainstream media have done against conservatives and conservative causes to expose liberal corruption in agencies like ACORN.  I get it - as a liberal, you don't like evil BREITBART!  And BREITBART Derangement Syndrome has replaced Bush Derangement Syndrome among some on the conspiratorial left, which always seems to need a boogeyman.  With your man in the Oval Office, it must be BREITBART and the evil Koch brothers' fault.

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Us "gullible" Republicans are largely irrelevant.  Weiner should be trying to persuade his own constituents that he did nothing wrong or at least have the decency not to lie to them about it.  But every time Weiner has opened his mouth, he has removed more and more doubt about who sent the tweet in question.

[krazen1211]

http://patterico.com/2011/06/05/more-weiner-messages-to-young-girls-evidence-the-media-was-duped-into-dropping-the-investigation/


There are new reasons to question whether Rep. Anthony Weiner sent DMs to young girls besides Gennette Nicole — and whether he sent Nicole more flirtatious DMs than just that one picture.

The other day, Tommy Christopher published an interesting article regarding two underage girls who had claimed to have incriminating DMs from Anthony Weiner. Christopher called the girls “Betty” and “Veronica” and said that they had admitted to him that they had lied. That may be . . . but there are some aspects of their claims (and those of their parents) that I think merit some examination.



wtf?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

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.

Established lack of credibility of Andrew BREITBART?  Only in the mind of liberals with an axe to grind.  The "credibility" of Dan Wolfe has been established - unless you think TweetCongress is lying when they have an archive of the same tweet, too.  Dan Wolfe's identity is as irrelevant as yours, hiding behind the fake name "Joementum".  Dan Wolfe has every right to remain anonymous as you or I do.  And Mike Stack isn't even tangentially involved in the tweet story, despite attempts to shame him and others who dare speak out against a politician - just like the left's attempts to smear Joe the Plumber.

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Again, Nikki Haley is irrelevant.  Nobody hacked Nikki Haley.  Going to the police would do nothing to stop someone from spreading smears about her.  If Weiner went to the police, Twitter and Tweetdeck would quickly divulge the IP address of the person who allegedly framed him.  The law firm Weiner hired can't subpoena Twitter to release any such information.  So to clear his name, Weiner HAS to go to law enforcement.  That he's not interested in doing so tells me more about who sent the link to the photo than anything else - either Weiner or someone who Weiner authorized to tweet on his behalf.  If a hacker truly did it, the IP address would quickly show it, without any invasion of Weiner's privacy.  So Weiner should welcome an investigation.

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You have ZERO proof BREITBART did anything.  In any event, BREITBART hasn't framed anyone.  BREITBART has applied the same type of investigative techniques your liberal friends in the mainstream media have done against conservatives and conservative causes to expose liberal corruption in agencies like ACORN.  I get it - as a liberal, you don't like evil BREITBART!  And BREITBART Derangement Syndrome has replaced Bush Derangement Syndrome among some on the conspiratorial left, which always seems to need a boogeyman.  With your man in the Oval Office, it must be BREITBART and the evil Koch brothers' fault.

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Us "gullible" Republicans are largely irrelevant.  Weiner should be trying to persuade his own constituents that he did nothing wrong or at least have the decency not to lie to them about it.  But every time Weiner has opened his mouth, he has removed more and more doubt about who sent the tweet in question.

Man, I hope you get your blood pressure checked regularly.

[cinyc]

Man, I hope you get your blood pressure checked regularly.

Please explain how your personal attack on me furthers this discussion at all.

[phk]

Dem leaders to Weiner: This has to end

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Man, I hope you get your blood pressure checked regularly.

Please explain how your personal attack on me furthers this discussion at all.

GIGO.

[Badger]

Maybe I'm not following this "scandal" closely enough, but is there any indication that Weiner may've violated any laws or misused his office? Is there any evidence that, at worst, he was a boorish horndog who cheated on his wife (not that I'm excusing such shameful behavior one bit)?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Maybe I'm not following this "scandal" closely enough, but is there any indication that Weiner may've violated any laws or misused his office? Is there any evidence that, at worst, he was a boorish horndog who cheated on his wife (not that I'm excusing such shameful behavior one bit)?

Agreed, no evidence of offical mis-deeds here.......if we got rid of all politicians who are boorish horndogs who cheat on their spouses.....no one would be left.......which may be a good thing

[cinyc]

Man, I hope you get your blood pressure checked regularly.

Please explain how your personal attack on me furthers this discussion at all.

GIGO.

The only garbage is coming from those who think there was some sort of grand conspiracy to frame Weiner because the evil BREITBART was tangentially involved in publicizing the tweet.  By the way, the evil BREITBART is at it again today - and after today, there will be no doubt in any rational person's mind who sent the tweet.  Not that there should have been any doubt last week, anyway.

Maybe I'm not following this "scandal" closely enough, but is there any indication that Weiner may've violated any laws or misused his office? Is there any evidence that, at worst, he was a boorish horndog who cheated on his wife (not that I'm excusing such shameful behavior one bit)?

Agreed, no evidence of offical mis-deeds here.......if we got rid of all politicians who are boorish horndogs who cheat on their spouses.....no one would be left.......which may be a good thing

Ask Congressman Chris Lee whether the fact that he had done nothing illegal meant he got to keep his job and has a bright political future.  Or Congressman Mark Foley, for that matter - and ask yourself how Foleygate hurt the election chances of all Congressional Republicans.    After all is revealed, given the types of people Weiner was following on Twitter, I wouldn't be shocked if Weinergate ends up looking more like Foleygate.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Oh, sweetie, you think you speak for rational people? That's almost adorable.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Weinergate /=/ Foleygate

[minionofmidas]

Chris Lee wasn't forced to resign either. He probably chose to fight to save his marriage rather than his job. I'd speculate that he didn't actually like his job or felt out of his league in it.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

cinyc, do you really believe Weiner won't get reelected in his District, and do you really believe it will have a ripple affect in any way, shape or form? 

I can't fathom it.  Maybe I missed the whole point of your last post.......but I don't get it.

[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!

[cinyc]

cinyc, do you really believe Weiner won't get reelected in his District, and do you really believe it will have a ripple affect in any way, shape or form? 

I can't fathom it.  Maybe I missed the whole point of your last post.......but I don't get it.

The tweet wasn't sent in a vacuum.  As the evil BREITBART is showing today, Weiner has a history of sending similar photos to others.  Some of Weiner's Twitter followers were under age 18.  If evidence surfaces that he was DMing similar pictures to underage girls, this quickly turns into something like Foleygate.

Weiner could easily get primaried in his district, or, if New York Democrats get sick enough of him, have his district eliminated as a result of redistricting.  So yes, there's a chance Weiner won't get reelected, though not by losing to a Republican.

[tpfkaw]

Wow, Weiner's district is only D+5.  He really could be in trouble.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

cinyc, do you really believe Weiner won't get reelected in his District, and do you really believe it will have a ripple affect in any way, shape or form?  

I can't fathom it.  Maybe I missed the whole point of your last post.......but I don't get it.

The tweet wasn't sent in a vacuum.  As the evil BREITBART is showing today, Weiner has a history of sending similar photos to others.  Some of Weiner's Twitter followers were under age 18.  If evidence surfaces that he was DMing similar pictures to underage girls, this quickly turns into something like Foleygate.

Weiner could easily get primaried in his district, or, if New York Democrats get sick enough of him, have his district eliminated as a result of redistricting.  So yes, there's a chance Weiner won't get reelected, though not by losing to a Republican.

I don't see it rising to the level of (I don't know what DMing means but,) sending pics to underage girls as the intended target, but that's my personal take on it, and I see now what you are saying, thanks.

I'd love to see his polling number in his District since this went nuclear.

(p.s. - I'm not a "BREITBART IZ THE DEVIL11!! guy but yes, he's not a popular fellow here)

[cinyc]

Wow, Weiner's district is only D+5.  He really could be in trouble.

It's a fools' gold D+5 district for Republicans, only so because of the blue collar white ethnic New Yorkers who make up much of NY-09 backing Bush over Kerry for national security reasons in 2004 and not much liking Obama in 2008.  On the Congressional level, the district should safely remain Democratic even if Weiner resigned - though I could see the district electing a more conservative Democrat.

[tpfkaw]

Wow, Weiner's district is only D+5.  He really could be in trouble.

It's a fools' gold D+5 district for Republicans, only so because of the blue collar white ethnic New Yorkers who make up much of NY-09 backing Bush over Kerry for national security reasons in 2004 and not much liking Obama in 2008.  On the Congressional level, the district should safely remain Democratic even if Weiner resigned - though I could see the district electing a more conservative Democrat.

Well I mean if Weiner doesn't resign and wins his primary.  Or possibly in a low-turnout special election.

[patrick1]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/06/06/2011-06-06_rep_weiner_sext_pic_scandal_new_photos_of_queens_congressman_reportedly_about_to.html

Haha.  This is hilarious.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Can you resize that to a thumbnail, patrick.......that's just gross

[Bull Moose Base]

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