The latest poll from his district has 56 percent of his constituents saying he shouldn’t resign.
Democratic analyst at Fox News Kirsten Powers was lied to by her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Weiner, about being hacked and defended him publicly on Fox and in text with that false info.
Full disclosure: I briefly dated Anthony almost a decade ago after meeting him at a postcampaign party for the 2002 New York gubernatorial race, during which I had worked as Andrew Cuomo’s press secretary. The relationship didn’t last, but we stayed friends. While we were dating, he traveled with my family to Costa Rica for Christmas, and years later I spent Thanksgiving with his when I was stranded in New York City because of work. He was a strong support when my father died suddenly from a heart attack seven years ago. When a relationship I had been hopeful about ended in 2006, he cleared his calendar to spend a Saturday with me and reassure me about my decision. We only dated for three months, and he was for the most part a doting boyfriend and my family was very fond of him.
In the past few years, we didn’t see each other or communicate much, though when my husband’s parents were recently trapped in Egypt during the revolution, he helped to connect me to his wife, Huma, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to facilitate their getting out.
That’s the nice part. The rest of the column is devastating…
Citizens are arrested and prosecuted when they lie to the government, even if it was over something personal. Why is there no penalty for when the government lies to the citizens? no matter what he reason.
It’s his ticket to prestige and women, after all; it’s his conduit to the media, for whom he loves serving up soundbites; and realistically, it’s his only route to becoming mayor. They’ll have to drag him from the House chamber kicking and screaming. Watch what she says too about what distinguishes Weiner’s scandal from other sex scandals. It’s not that he lied about it to try to cover it up. It’s that he lied to everyone, from his wife to his friends to his aides to his colleagues to his donors to the president. And of course, to himself: If this guy seriously thought he could run New York City while texting photos of his schwanz to random female acquaintances online without anyone finding out, his egomania and self-delusion are so severe as to require medical attention. It’s seriously crazy. And not only did he lie, he did it in one of the cheapest, most demagogic ways possible by trying to pawn the whole thing off on the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” As sleazy as Clinton’s, Vitter’s, and Spitzer’s scandals each were, I never thought it defined each man’s entire character; with Weiner, I do. I think KP agrees, which is why she seems so palpably distressed when talking and writing about this.