Although I don’t think what Anthony Weiner is even accused of doing rises to the level of ‘love child while your wife has cancer’, the #Weinergate story reminds me a lot of the post-Beverly Hills Hotel phase of the John Edwards story.
Some people like to apply “Occam’s Razor” or some such test in such a situation, but I have a much easier test. I call it “Would your spouse buy it?”
With John Edwards the test went something like this:
“Hey, honey I know that reporters caught me in the middle of the night leaving the hotel room of a woman and then I hid in the bathroom when they asked me about it – but really, nothing was going on!”
Would the average spouse just let it go right there? No?
Then neither should the average reporter. If ‘benefit of the doubt’ isn’t good enough for the person you’re married to, then it’s not good enough for the practice of journalism. And by not acting as curious as a spouse – usually because of ideological agreement with the subject of inquiry – reporters aren’t doing their jobs.
Let’s apply this to Anthony Weiner…
“Hey, honey – I know that my Twitter account sent a photo of what may look like my hairless legs and possibly my junk to one of the woman who I follow on Twitter. And right, I follow less than 100 people. And yes, this woman who referred to me online as ‘her boyfriend’ and her friend said she has ‘a crush’ on me – and okay, she lives in Seattle and retweeted me saying what time in Seattle I’d be on the Rachael Maddow show. And yes, within 3 hours of me supposedly sending her the photo of my alleged junk I erased all my pictures from my YFrog account and sure, she deleted her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
But I have a simple explanation—I was hacked.
And no, I haven’t given any indication of having filed a police report of any kind about being hacked.
But I was hacked. Here’s some flowers. And a teddy bear.”
Would YOUR spouse buy that one?
Not so sure that many would buy it. The real question for me in all of this is about politicians working for us…the guy is a dick to begin with but do taxpayers enjoy paying this guy’s salary?
I’m not saying Weiner did not Tweet the picture himself, but there is one way to make it more or less likely.
Weiner follows few people (194 when I checked 15 minutes ago), so it would have been easy to get a screenshot of his “Following” where he actually follows this woman. Does this screenshot exist?
If not, why not? Seems the person who broke the story managed to get a lot of information “seconds” before it was deleted, it would be strange if that was not one of the pieces of information?
I don’t have an opinion t what are the facts in this case, but I find it a bit peculiar that so much information was deleted from the internet between the time it was discovered and the time it was published. If that is actually the case, then the Weiner thing is not the real story here.
Then the real story would be that someone that has the power to delete caches from the internet, Google and at least one more place has been mentioned, are keeping the people who discovered this story under so tight surveillance that they can do so seemingly within minutes.
So what is the story with every piece of evidence being deleted so fast? If the evidence is not fabricated, it looks like a much bigger story than a picture of a boner.
Hence the WeinerGate part of it, Ole. I’d say I don’t care if the guy tweets his junk to college girls, but it raises two concerns in my mind.
One, it disrespects his wife. Lee covers one of the first questions here that popped into my head. I wonder what Weiner’s wife is going to say about this? I can predict how he is going to react. But, she will be the true tell. Will she accept the disrespect and cover for him or let him have it? I lost more respect for HRC after the Lewsinsky scandal than I did Bill. If you focus on the infidelity part and not the lying under oath part.
Two, it illustrates the problem we have with our politicians and our expectations of them; if we tolerate this kind of behavior. If you are willing to disrespect your WIFE and get away with it then are you the type of person the American people can trust to serve their best interests? Honestly? Do we care about corruption in politics or not?
Having a media that protects these people (regardless of party) is the larger problem, perhaps. Anyone that knows they can get away with any bad behavior, at some point, will. And with that mind, I hold the media in more disdain than I do Weiner. He is only “allegedly” doing what the media is enabling him to do.
If the screenshot doesn’t fit, you must acquit? There is enough information against Weiner thus far to get us past that. Weiner has to do more to defend his hack story. He’s not acting like a U.S. Rep, he’s acting like a small-time celebrity hoping an “oopsy” controversy will pass.
I would like to see the results of a FOIA request on Weiner’s hack.
Lee. great point. Ive always said “the truth sounds like the truth and BS sounds like BS”. Everything in this case screams “I did it!” yet we get silence. If this had been Paul Ryan, the MSM would be all over it. The Kos Kids (who I remember treated you rather shabily over the Edwards thing) are in full defense. Going so far as to say the item was photoshopped. I dont believe they were as interested in other postings by “photoshop experts” discecting the released certificate. yet as far as they are concerned its CASE CLOSED. LOL
Weiner Hacked.
John Wayne Bobbitt sends sympathy card.
Anyone married to an amoral liberal scumbag like this disrespects herself.
Or, as Winston Churchill (allegedly) said to an MP, “Madam, we’ve already established WHAT you are; now, we’re simply haggling over price.”
A word to the wise.
Once infected, no amount of Weiner scrubbing will keep it from going viral.
One way to prove it…..let’s have a line up!
Digger99,
“One way to prove it…..let’s have a line up!”
If the Weiner doesn’t fit.
You must acquit.
The same night John Edwards was chased into the hotel bathroom by photojournalists his wife Elizabeth was in another city appearing at a cancer fund raising event. I know that because we were at the event and saw Elizabeth in person. The following days when the National Enquirer broke the hotel story several of us emailed messages back and forth- things like “how conveeeenient!” We didn’t doubt for a minute the NE had caught him in the act of sneaking around while Elizabeth was away and occupied.
Mrs. Weiner, Huma Abedin, is a close aide to Hillary Clinton. Secretary Clinton was traveling abroad most of last week (Paris, Pakistan). Was Mrs. Weiner also on the diplomatic mission? Very probably so. How conveeeenient then for Anthony to pursue his extracurricular tweeting.
Dear Congressman,
You may already be a Weiner!
The three X’s, or the present?
Short answer, No. Long answer, Why Hell No..
He was hacked? And the hackers deleted the hack right after? And they hacked & erased the Twitter account of the person the pic was sent to and are now scrubbing the web of their history?
A hacker who’s fame in hacking a US Rep is deleted by the hacker w/in four minutes? Really? And there’s no pending investigation of a US Rep’s account being hacked? You know, a guy with security clearance?
Is anyone buying this bs story?
Want to see a hilarious photoshop of Congressman Weiner? Go here: http://nosheepleshere.blogspot.com/2011/05/weinergate-teensy-weensy-anthony-weiner.html
this is one of those cases where the simplest answer is the right one.
He tried a private tweet, with the “d” before the username, and he screwed up and put the “@” instead. He fired off his junk to thousands of people instead of just to one. And now he’s getting a world class coverup, probably paid for by our tax dollars. She will get paid off, his digital trail will get broomed, and he will continue to screw up the country at our expense.
Conservatives don’t twitter hack. And Palin would have been hacked a hundred times by now if this scenario was in any way true. Just loose play on his part, I think.
Imagine the conversation between Hillary Clinton and Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin who is/was Hillary’s chief of staff. Odds are high for this type of thing when you marry one of the sleazier politicians.
“And by not acting as curious as a spouse – usually because of ideological agreement with the subject of inquiry – reporters aren’t doing their jobs.”
Tony Rezko - nothing to see here
Jeremiah Wright - nothing to see here
Dirty (non-public) campaign money - nothing to see here
Illegally firing an inspector general when he gets too close - nothing to see here
The formula for high curiosity about a politician goes as follows:
IF(money involved OR criminal behavior involved OR sex involved OR Republican Party involved) AND NOT Democratic Party involved THEN high curiosity ELSE no curiosity
Hey! remember when that wholly unsubstantiated allegation about John McCain having an affair (even though both parties denied it) hit the front page of the New York Times? We’ll no doubt see a report about Weiner in the Times on Tuesday morning after they’ve had an adequate chance to investigate.
My spouse would certainly know what kind of undies I wear, which orientation my weiner points to and it’s size and girth.
So look for Huma’s reaction. If she turns cold to Weiner or the marriage falls apart…there’s your answer.
Like Groucho said “who are you going to believe? Me, or your two lying eyes?”
Apparently Weiner’s wife is buying what he’s selling.
Hillary’s close, personal aide Huma Weiner
has never seen one of those, I’d bet.
Especially not Mr. Weiner’s.
So complicated. A girl stalked Weiner & his TIVO is hacked & then the dog ate … Why not just have Carville say “Ambien”?
So complicated. A girl stalked Weiner & his TIVO is hacked & then the dog ate his daily intelligence briefing… Why not just have Carville say “Ambien”?
Depends on whether she’s an enabler or simply a cowed spouse.
Reminds me of the scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation where Chevy Chase goes skinny dipping in the motel pool with Christie Brinkley, and afterwards tries to explain it away to his teen son Rusty. Something to the effect of “oh her? That lady in the pool? She was just a, uh… swimming pool waitress”. And Rusty, not wanting to ruin the bonhomie of another father-son heart-to-heart talk fires back with “sounds great, dad. Do you think mom will buy it?”
Of course the press don’t follow up. The press don’t react as a spouse would, they react as a whore. And we all know who the press whores for.
Happening Now: Rep. Anthony Weiner denounces Andrew Breitbart as “culturally insensitive and Islamophobic,” says that under Sharia law his marriage to Muslim Huma Abedin allows him to sext up to 4 women.