Stacy McCain has a pretty big roundup, and this brutally concise summary:
Yeah, never mind that there seem to be exactly two alternatives:
- Weiner, a member of Congress with a high security clearance, was the victim of a federal crime involving a breach of his online communications accounts; or
- Weiner sent a picture of his penis to a college girl.
As Ace points out, Weiner’s version of what happened is awfully unlikely.
Also, it seems to me Weiner’s inital statement that he didn’t know the girl to whom the picture was sent has already been proven a lie by her admission he followed her on Twitter — one of only about 90 people he followed. How many more lies Weiner tells before coming clean could greatly impact how this story plays out. This is already going to be devastating to his political career, but if he lies to the FBI or files a false police report, he could end up in prison.
So, I propose a simple test for the next few days: if Weiner’s account was in fact hacked and he did not send the pic, he should be the first one to demand an investigation. However, if he actually sent the pic, an investigation is the very last thing in the world he wants to see — not only would it expose him, as noted above it could make things much worse for him. So it will be very, very interesting to see what Team Weiner does over the next few days.
My prediction is they will try to slide through with some variation on the following: the “hacking” (and perhaps even Following the young woman in Seattle) was a slipup by a junior aide, who will be offered up as public sacrifice (but in reality, given assurances he/she will be”taken care of” by wealthy Dem donors a la Rielle Hunter, or perhaps given a cushy gov’t job a la Barney Frank’s significant other). That keeps the authorities out of it and minimizes damage to Weiner’s career… if the story holds together until the news cycle moves on.
Comments
5 responses to “WeinerGate Continues To Grow”
I have a funny feeling (pardon the expression) that Mr. Weiner’s new, young-ish wife might recognize those shorts in the photo. I haven’t seen any attempts to get a reaction/comment from her. Though I have been otherwise occupied.
So far the left hasn’t really touched this with a ten foot pole. Unless they do, nothing will happen. After all he is a Dim, I mean Dem.
Lynndh,
But isn’t this something Fox News should be looking into? Not a fan, but it seems to be their place to plug these gaps in MSM reporting. Curious as to how the WSJ will handle this. Don’t see anything in their on-line edition, but I don’t usually read that so not sure how often it’s updated.
I saw a post at Kos that lays out the case for this having been, not a hack of his account, but a faked screen shot sent out as a supposed re-tweet. I think that’s what they were saying anyway; I don’t know enough about the possible cyber permutations to really understand it. But it sure sounded like a third alternative. They also have many screen shots of some conservative tweeter hinting two weeks in advance that Weiner was sending out nudie pics of himself. I would love to have someone who understands this stuff take a look at the Kos explanation. I don’t trust Kos of course but i wonder where they got all this background material.
So far he has NOT called the police or hired an investigator. He HAS hired a lawyer. Hmm…