One of the strangest aspects of the #Weinergate story is that they are three people that are fairly central to the story that nobody seems to be able to locate.Neither the prescient Weiner obsessed whistleblower PatriotUSA76, nor the two high school girls named “Betty and Veronica” in Tommy Christopher’s original piece reporting on the two.
I’ve discussed the situation with Patriot a number of time so the update is – still, nobody seems to have ever spoken to them on the phone. Nobody knows who they are and there are contradictions in their story.
I had reporters calling me all weekend to try and find Betty and Veronica. These are people from major press organizations with big resources behind them. No sign of Betty or Veronica. Tommy Christopher says he spoke to Betty’s Mom on the phone and did other things to confirm their identities and it would be a fatal career move to just lie about that, so it’s hard to believe that that’s what happened. On the other hand, nobody else has seen this proof as far as I know (perhaps Colby Hall, the managing editor?) and Tommy has been very belligerently defensive about his reporting. And again, reporters have put dozens of hours into searching records and knocking on door with no trace.
Significantly, Betty seems to be connected at least four people central to Weinergate – Weiner followed her, she talked on Twitter with stripper @GingerLee, Betty contacted the 17 year old girl in Delaware, and she had some interactions with PatriotUSA76. It also seems like @GennetteC knew about her.
It’s weird and it’s weird in a way that’s not normal, either. When else has this happened? I can’t remember another story with 3 (or more, really) phantom people. The fact that Weiner is guilty of doing what Patriot long suspected him of doing makes it more weird, not less weird.
And no, they don’t all seem to be the same person. For one thing, Patriot is clearly anti-Weiner and Betty and her Mom (also MIA) are very pro-Weiner. I honestly just don’t know what’s going on. Maybe it will be a simple answer. The basic issue of identity shouldn’t be tricky. I’d prefer that.
Maybe you should ask Colby (OTR) if he’s seen proof from tommy on B+V communications. Other that just twitter. Or did he just blindly accept Tommy’s assertions that he spoke with B+V on phone and email.
If accepted blindly, would Colby request Tommy to reveal those communications to him to corroborate.
At least, you would know that there is more than just Tommy what “knows” B=V are not phantom ID’s. That would be good for Tommy
By “phantom” are you suggesting, as I’ve seen Dana Loesch suggest, that B&V do not exist?
How can they be phantoms yet have had exchanges with the other principals?
Mike Stack (@goatsred) was in communication with Veronica. Why isn’t anyone asking him about this? Does he think the girls don’t exist.
you can’t make this shit up! I agree its bizarre stuff.
if christopher made up B&V contacts, it would be suicide for his career, i agree. remember also that betty reached out to tommy, but apparently has reached out to no one else. and she reached out before she knew about the true content of veronica’s DMs to goatsred.
At the Allred press conference clusterfuck today, Allred said Weiner told Lee he suspected a twitter “scandal” would be coming (with GOP forces behind it) - it seems this happened before the dicktweet was sent. so weiner expected a scandal to emerge about dirty tweets to underage females, while conducting dirty talk over facebook and email primarily.
I can understand the minors and their parents not wanting to be in the national spotlight, especially if nothing inappropriate was going on between weiner and said minors. However, what I can’t understand is a parent blindly trusting an online relationship between their minor daughter and a middle-aged man.
The parents said they monitered their daughters internet time. I moniter my sons internet usage, but he still sees things that I have a hard time explaining. “dad, what does jizz in my pants mean?” (well son… If you remember to ask, I’ll tell you when you’re 14.)
My point is, the parents should be smart enough to know that the girl has friends with computers and access to a public library. Its impossible to completely moniter your kids.
If some anonymous internet user told me, “hey, lee stranahan might be sending your kid some private messages, and he has a habit of talkin dirty to little girls,” I wouldn’t give a shit what his politics are or how much I love his blog. I would look into it.
The parents reaction stinks of cover up. From the daughter “asking weiner to unfollow her” (even though her subsequent tweet implied weiner unfollowed her and she was upset at him for it)(and, by the way, it irritates the living fuck out of me that “unfollow” is now a word) to the mom defending weiner for following a porn star. How would she know what he was saying to a porn star? If weiner was the mom’s brother, I would understand the strong defense. But in light of all the facts that have been pouring out, especially that he offered his team to at least one of the girls to assist in the original denial.
And I could care less if patriot is a sequential hermaphrodite unicorn from mars. Like Vincent D’Onofrio’s character says in the beginning of Brooklyn’s Finest, patriot isn’t a case of right or wrong, but righter or wronger. Patriot may have been wrong in his tactic of stalking weiner and who he was following, but he ended up being right in what he found. As long as he didn’t break any laws, then why should we demand his identity anymore than we demanded the identity of Deep Throat? (and before Guest jumps on the literal train, I know of the many differences between the two).
But aside from confirming gender, what would talking on the phone prove that the IMs didn’t? That he’s not a rambling nutcase who stumbled/stalked his way into a journalistic wet dream?
We shouldn’t be trusting anyone in this situation. Dan Wolfe is the only person who’s given the most plausible explanation for why he’s done what he’s done. Everyone else was either lying then, when the initial story actually made sense, or they’re lying now where their stories make no sense. What makes the most sense to me is that they are all ardent supporters of Weiner and don’t want to turn on their hero.
They also desperately don’t want to be brought into the public eye. Could who they are have an effect on how the story is perceived if we did actually get a look at the parents? Are they the type of parents who after some cursory digging we can affirm that they didn’t pay attention to their kids twitter account? From Christopher’s own account he says he’s never even seen them. He just had phone conversations with the parents. I’m sorry but the easiest way to lie to someone is when they can’t see you. The face can give away signs of deception. Not so when dealing with phone calls and email.
Did Christopher look into the parents and see if any of their other children had criminal records? Did he interview any of their neighbors? Are the parents alcoholics or drug addicts? That would lead one to believe the parents really weren’t that aware of what their children were up to. What about school grades? Do both the parents work? Are they latch key kids? There are far to many questions that are unanswered and worse yet answers that were taking on faith from people that have been lying.
What Tommy Christopher has to do with all this I don’t know. I think he was perhaps the unwitting member of the cover up. Perhaps Weiners PR firm directed B&V toward Christopher because he’s on Weiner’s side. He’s not going to dig deep because he wants to believe what their selling. At that moment in time it was still possible to tamp out the scandal before it exploded. The B&V side of the story only makes any sense in the, there’s nothing to see her light of things. When it’s discovered there is something to see suddenly their story as well as Chritophers reporting of it are severely called into question.
This story isn’t over yet.
Didn’t Daily Kos print the girl’s real names?
No reporters have even FOUND them - it’s not like they are turning down interview requests. That wouldn’t be weird. They can’t be found.
Did you look into “Concord High School?”
Clearly there was a lot going on behind the scenes in the very early days of the scandal. The lies, machinations, suggestions, and media interventions to head off, and to try to minimize the damage to Weiner and the Dems is becoming more and more obvious as each day passes.
Somebody other than Weiner himself was stage managing a cover up-maneuvering within the friendly press and placing useful stories in the media to change the subject and attempting to head off an investigation. It’s still hard to tell if Tommy C was initially sucked in by someone he trusted or if he was a willing participant and took a lead in creating a misleading narrative to save the Dems. Either way he has shown he is not much of a journalist in that even now he seems quite disinterested in finding the truth. Gennette and especially Betty and Veronica are very much part of this early phase of the Dem damage control effort. Yet one can’t help but feel the cover-uppers were hampered in that they really did not know the full extent of Weiner’s activities. So they missed some things and guessed wrong. Betty and Veronica may or may not exit and if they do, they may or may not even be germane.
But that was then and now is now. The endgame has changed dramatically. The goal no longer is to protect Weiner. Now the planted stories, pics, and other press maneuvering seems to be going in the exact opposite direction. Now the Dem leadership’s henchmen are desperate to stop the bleeding and force Weiner out, by using and disseminating whatever embarrassing info they have on him. (The gym pics, Gloria Allred, the National Enquirer cover today)
Don’t you have to wonder if Tommy C is smart enough to even recognize this? Can he see how stupidly he allowed himself to be used for what he probably was convinced was necessary and a worthwhile liberal cause at the time he was enlisted? He has now essentially been thrown under the bus by events he and nobody else could control. But it’s hard to shed a tear for him.
Betty? Veronica? Where are Archie, Reggie, Moose and Jughead?
Was just listening to this again
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stranahan/2011/06/20/weinergate-betty-veronia-solved