Anthony Weiner announces resignation from Congress

[tpsbmam]

Source: CBS

Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner on Thursday announced his resignation from Congress after more than a dozen years, ending almost three weeks of media scrutiny and intense pressure on the New York Democrat who sent lewd photos and messages to several women he met online.

"Today I am announcing my resignation from Congress so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representative and most importantly that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage I have caused," Weiner told a packed house of reporters at the Council Center for Senior Citizens in Brooklyn.

Weiner's wife Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was seen entering the couple's home in Queens before the press conference, but was not at the Brooklyn event that took on a circus-like atmosphere as many booed and jeered while Weiner spoke for about three minutes. Abedin is in the early stages of pregnancy with the couple's first child.

The scandal had become a distraction for House Democrats, who had raised pressure on Weiner to resign in recent days after he admitted to exchanging lewd photos and messages with women he met online.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20071659-503544.html#ixzz1PSxFBrET

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20071659-503544.html?tag=breakingnews

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[JohnnyLib2]

3. !!!

:spray:

[MineralMan]

2. OK. That's over. Moving on...

Didja hear that the NY state Senate will vote on the marriage equality bill and that it looks like it will pass? Now, there's some great news!

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. He finally shot his wad

The tension was almost unbearable.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[AnOhioan]

6. He threw himself under the bus....no-one to blame but the man himself

[DumpDavisHogg]

8. Then why is it OK for David Vitter to walk around in his shit-filled diaper?

[AnOhioan]

9. Never said it was...but Weiner chose to send out the pics..and he chose to resign

he could have stayed...but he didn't.

[Zen Democrat]

10. Because the voters of Louisiana reelected him last November.

I presume that having your bottom powdered and diapered by hookers is not a concern to Louisiana's Republican voters.

[wordpix]

17. Weiner should get his house in order and run again

After he gets over his fascination with internet fantasies

[USA_1]

22. Because Dems Are Too Scared to Hold Him to the Same Standards

... and Republicans lack the integrity to do the same.

[cstanleytech]

27. Are you saying your a republican?

Or are you one of those dems to scared to hold him to the same standard?

Personally I think Vitter should have resigned or been impeached but he cant be forced to resign by me nor do I have the ability to impeach him as much as I believe he should have been.

[USA_1]

47. Republican???

I'd rather nominate Benedict Arnold for sainthood.

[cstanleytech]

52. Then perhaps you might want to think first rather

than attacking dems in general including yourself if you are a democrat as well.

[djg21]

50. Or. . .

because Dems hold them selves to higher standards, and will not ignore obvious lapses in judgment just to hold power.

Good riddance.

[USA_1]

56. Pukies should hold themselves to same standard

... and people should be free to criticize anyone who fails to live up to them.

[cstanleytech]

24. Did they say it was ok because of Vitter? No they did not

and in fact Vitter should have done the honorable thing and resigned (as Wiener did in the end) but he didnt do so but then again it is Vitter so no surprise there.

[SoapBox]

13. Super major ditto.

[earthside]

19. My sentiments exactly.

This was a totally self-inflected scandal.

The man was obviously too stupid to remain a Congressman -- I mean ... thinking that anything posted on Twitter is 'private'? To think that lying about what he did was going to get him off the hook for what he did?

He had a brief moment where he emerged as a progressive spokesperson, but all along he was undercutting his own potential by engaging in risky, irresponsible behavior.

Weiner meet bus.

[blackspade]

31. What is exactly the scandal?

The pics and texts?
Or the lying.

I honestly could give two shits about the pics and the texts. Who cares?
I they were illegal, then that would be an issue. Otherwise it is between him and his wife.

The lying? Well that is an issue.
I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing.
Now, he should have been a bit more aware of the potential political dangers he was putting himself in, but I have no doubts if he hadn't lied he would still be in the same place he is now.
The M$M, the Rethugs, and the DLC were going to get him one way or the other, he just made it a lot easier.

[me b zola]

43. His lies had absolutely nothing to do with policy or ethical matters

Yet every single time I watch a news show there is a politician bald faced lying about policies and what they have done, are doing, or are planning to do that effects us all.

This was nothing more than a witch hunt for an out spoken progressive

[blackspade]

45. I actually agree completely.

My point was that if you take the lie away, that everyone seems to be hanging their outrage on, you have nothing but a political hit job.

[24601]

51. Sorry - but the lying quickly gets to the very core of ethics. A much

smaller lie gets you bounced from West Point, Annapolis, AF Academy, CG Academy and other schools with a viable Honor Code. It's not too much to hold high government officials to at least the minimal standard required of the cadets, midshipmen or civilian students.

Weiner killed his own career with his incredible arrogance coupled with a lack of personal integrity.

[Honeycombe8]

57. Both the pics/texts and the lying were part of the scandal.

YOU may not care that there are pics of his penis and balls floating all over the internet, and that he sent them, unsolicited in some cases, to young women. But that is really bizarro behavior, disgusting, and is something that most of the millions of people in the country have not done and would never do. Then he compounded the problem by lying about it multiple times over the course of a week, and asking others to lie for him. Then, finally, actually blaming someone else.

He was a high profile political leader in the United States Congress. He was there to deal with very serious matters that affect all of our lives. What he did interfered with the ability to perform his job, and besides that, made it almost impossible to look at him without picturing his penis either raw or in his briefs.

What the lying did was make him unbelievable, or at least questionable, in the future, when he would ever make statements on issues.

He didn't just have an affair, a night with prostitutes, or anything of the normal, lurid thing that narcissistic men in powerful positions do. He did something reeeeeealllly weird, by most people's standards. And he did it multiple times (and who doesn't think he's been doing this sort of thing for some time?). And worst of all, there was pictorial evidence of it floating all around the internet. It's one thing to hear about what someone did. But it's another thing to see it for yourself...a picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Those pics will NEVER go away.

It's tragic. But he made it impossible for him to continue in his job at this time. Maybe he can run for re-election, and when time has passed, get re-elected. Time will tell. For now, it was just too weird for the country to handle, at this time in our country's history when there are so many huge problems to tackle.

[cstanleytech]

28. Sad but true. nt

[MineralMan]

7. Yes...well...thanks for letting us know that you've

chosen irrelevance for yourself.

[libmom74]

12. If the Democratic Party continues

throwing liberals/progressives under the bus and doing their part to be more bi-partisan with the whacked out extremist right wing I predict that it won't be much longer before a strong left wing third party is formed to represent the 98% of Americans who are really getting sick of this crap.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

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[DCBob]

23. How about holding your breath until you get what you want.

That might work.

[SoapBox]

11. It's sad...

I love the Weiner.

But I can't believe he was THIS dumb.

Now we move on to VITTER, VITTER, VITTER!

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Stupid!

[florida08]

15. Well that's 2 down.

This will hurt the party more than they realize. I never thought drain the swamp meant liberals.

[kenfrequed]

16. He should not have resigned

And the Leadership should have shut the hell up. Fine. You disapprove. Done. But no... the DLC scum had to agonize over it and bring it up again and again and again. Friggin stupid as hell.

[MilesColtrane]

18. Time to hang up the cape, Congressman.

Good luck on getting help and rebuilding your life.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

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[tblue]

21. The Dems would do well to take a page from the Repub playbook

Rally around your warriors, have each other's back instead of caving in time after time after time, stand united and fight for the fighter. He sent dirty pictures. He didn't kill anybody! I'm sure the Republicans are celebrating, and Andrew Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh.

[center rising]

25. I'm glad he's gone. Too much a distraction.

[JJW]

29. Seems pretty unfair

Clinton actually had sex, lied about it in court, obstructed justice. So it seems the big deal here is actually having the penis revealed to the public. Our society just can't handle that body part.

[Vidar]

30. Damn, another victory for Pelosi and the Vichy Democrats.

[smirkymonkey]

66. Vichy Democrats. I've never heard that one before.

I kind of like it.

[Wabbajack_]

32. A shame

A good man who committed no crime is forced out by frothing moralism.

[tnlefty]

36. Frothing moralism...

thanks, do you mind if I borrow that?

[Wabbajack_]

63. Go right ahead!

[Akoto]

33. Real shame. He broke no laws, and was a great representative.

When he spoke, people listened, and you could relate to him. He didn't talk down to you. Yes, Weiner obviously has some problems, but they were private issues which apparently did not keep him from fulfilling his duties.

Honestly, if pictures of me had come out like that, I probably would've lied as well. Not a malicious lie, but one of embarrassment.

[Danchi]

34. I support Weiner & hope he runs as Independent

The picture was suppose to be a private tweet. Send accidentally and deleted almost as quickly as it was sent. Consensus of technical geeks and other who have actually investigated this no sex scandal is Weiner was a target and his modes of private communication were monitored and copied 24/7 for some time. There is software that can be used to obtain private tweets. I know this for a fact because my daughter's school uses it to obtain information on whether the teachers are using school equipment for personal use. This is not about pictures. It's about eliminating someone who was a progressive fighting for the wrong causes in the mind of Republicans, conservatives who are not elected officials and the Democratic party. They threw him under the bus in the same way they did not support Alan Grayson when he was running for re-election. Both were brash, abrasive aggressive in your face progressives who were fighting to expose conflicts of interest of both parties that prevented the forward mobility of the middle class and those of lower incomes. In other words because Dems want to continue their sleazy liaisons with the oil companies, Insurance companies, Wall Street, the banking industry and whoever else they seek for support-maybe even the Koch Brothers, they had to get rid of someone who confronts these industry and exposes them for the sleazy country killing parasites that they are.

For those who think pictures are worth someone's career, especially the career of someone who is on your side, I feel sorry for you. I'm sure you are perfect and that no one can meet your expectations. WE are all flawed in one way or another and some of the most effective people in the world are not perfect. It seems that passionate energy that is displayed and used for the betterment of humanity frequently gets distorted. I wonder if you would have kicked the Kennedy Brothers to the curb or Martin Luther King Jr? J. Edgar Hoover had pictures, wiretaps and movies on their activity-were they worth fighting for? When do people of good conscious stop cutting of their noses to spite their faces? Is Weiner's resignation worth losing the other voice in the narrative of the direction this country is going in? He could have change the narrative on this so called scandal had the Democratics keep their moths shut if they didn't want to support him. Public Options-no longer a voice for it, bringing to light Clarence Thomas's obvious conflict of interest and the fact that he lied on his disclosure forms concerning the thousands of dollars his wife received from conservative groups to torpedo HCR and any cause that serves the people of this country-down the toilet. You think the present set of Dems are going to fight for the middle class? The use of the term "middle class" is a means to an end to get your vote and money. I'm not sure I will vote in the next election because I don't want to support hypocrites and cowards but they damn sure won't get another penny from me.

[struggle4progress]

35. k thx bai

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

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[aikoaiko]

38. Fuck who?

[Hulk]

39. Reality is.....he was involved in some pretty dumb-ass activities.

I honestly don't care if he resigned or not. I didn't want him to resign, but I don't think it hurts anyone if he does. He was not the "great advocate" for the progressive movement that we like to think he was. He was flamboyant, yes. He pointed out the hypocrisy of politics, and was able to handle interviews pretty handily with fox and the other bimbos. But as for really moving agenda or proposing bills to help the middle class....ah, I'm not so sure.
What he did was his own business...but what a dumb ass to be so stupid and foolish with his little fetish. I mean...he's married, no? He's an expectant father, no? He's educated and actually a rather visible politician, no? And he sends chat to numerous woman with lewd and vulgar messages? He sends a picture of his cock, his buffed up chest, and God knows what else to total strangers? He has "no idea" that you can share this info with others at anytime? What sort of a cave is this idiot living in?
Sorry to see him go, but even sorrier to see him embarrass himself, his family, his constituents and his political party because he has his brain in his penis. What an idiot.
I'm sure someone will step forward to take his place that maybe has a little better discretion on their behavior outside of the public realm. I certainly hope so.
I'm most sorry for his expectant wife. How proud she must be. He deserves a swift kick in the ass from LOTS of people..and especially his wife and mother. Moron!

[proud patriot]

40. sigh

man o man

[tomm2thumbs]

41. 'Coverage of the saga occupied 17% of the news hole between June 6 and June 12'

Insert Weiner into news hole, and you get today's media coverage

[me b zola]

42. A big fuck you to everyone who assisted in this witch hunt

This is nothing more than the purging of every progressive voice from the democratic party. They are redistricting Kucinich out and rumblings that they are coming for Bernie.

I'm mad as hell.

[DCBob]

48. fu back.. it was NOT a "witch hunt".

your anger is totally misplaced.

[alarimer]

44. So when is Vitter leaving?

He actually committed a crime.

[Honeycombe8]

58. Every situation is different. There is not actually a pic on the internet of Vitter...

There is not actually a pic on the internet of Vitter in his kinky diapers with his penis hanging out, or evidence that he sent it, unsolicited, to some young woman.

Very different scenarios. I think Vitter should've been drummed out, too, though. But he didn't spend a week lying and blaming someone else, as I recall. And there are no pics floating around the internet of his kinky nights with prostitutes. And the timing was that it came not long after the Nevada bathroom incident and the Mark Foley indescretions, so that it wasn't as shocking as it might have otherwise been.

Plus...I've heard by pundits on TV that Weiner wasn't that well liked, anyway. That comes into play when your back is against the wall and you need friends to come to your aid. In Weiner's case, what few friends came to his defense were soon p.o'd because Weiner was lying to them and everyone, so HE betrayed THEM.

This was just tooooo weird at a time when the problems in the country are soooo serious...and this full-of-himself guy is taking pics of his penis (both in and out of his briefs) and sending it to young women (who didn't ask for it, no less) over the internet? Right after another Congressman just got caught doing something similar? Hard to take a guy seriously, once you've seen his penis and balls on the internet.

[avaistheone1]

46. And meanwhile the Republicans want to run Newt Gingrich for President

Newt Gingrich: I Screwed Around On My Wives Because I Love This Country So Much

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmdvRu1eCDY

[Psephos]

59. One can only hope they would be that stupid. n/t

[JJW]

49. Wouldn't be prudent

I guess we have more important things to do than prosecute banksters and war criminals.

[JDPriestly]

53. Marcy Kaptur is about all that is left.

I understand that Kucinich is about to be redistricted out of Congress. Grayson was hounded out by an extremist.

Now Weiner gone. Who speaks for us?

[alp227]

55. Ask anyone in the House Progressive Caucus

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=71§iontree=2,71

Weiner's fellow NYC representative Jerrold Nadler is among them. And the aging House veterans John Conyers, Charles Rangel, and Pete Stark among others.

[JDPriestly]

60. John Conyers just isn't very strong any more.

I haven't seen much of Pete Stark. I didn't realize that he was that liberal.

[alp227]

61. uhh, the conyers amendment about Libya?

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HZ00333:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll366.xml

Passed 416-5; "...to prevent funds authorized in the Act from being used to deploy, establish, or maintain the presence of Members of the Armed Forces or private security contractors on the ground in Libya unless the purpose of the presence is to rescue a Member of the Armed Forces from imminent danger."

[JDPriestly]

62. Conyers made promises during the Bush administration, I think about subpoenaing

Rove (not sure that was it), and did not carry through on what he said he was going to do.

[alp227]

54. After taking some time off to repair his personal life, he can still be active outside Congress

He can join "us" like Thom Hartmann says: "Democracy begins when YOU get active." So he can probably join a non-profit or start a new career in the media like fellow New York politician exiled by a sex scandal, Eliot Spitzer. And I'm sorry if you feel that the Democrats' ill feelings towards Weiner were unjustified. The Democrats can't afford to have an Anthony Weiner-related attack ad in 2012, the Tea Party takeover of the House in 2010 was bad enough.

[Javaman]

64. Oh thank god!!! Morality will now return to congress!!! right? right?

we are a pathetic nation.

[smirkymonkey]

67. If we forced every member of Congress who had sexual issues

and affairs, who lied, and who at some point was guilty of poor judgement and a lack of ethics, there would be no Congress.

[Javaman]

68. There would be no congress.

exactly right.

the hypocrisy displayed by both parties is completely disgusting.

They are all just one tweet, one posted photo, one sexual affair away from being found out themselves.

what makes this whole thing that much more galling is that Weiner did nothing illegal yet vitter who paid for prostitutes skates free.

The bottom line to all of this is: repukes hated Weiner for pointing out their bullshit. The Dems hated Weiner for pointing out repuke bullshit thus highlighting their gross inability to do their jobs.

The Dems don't like someone who 1) upsets the status quo of the Kabuki theatrics.

[robcon]

65. I think this article comes closest to the bigger meaning of the Weiner story:

"Weiner is a victim of web-driven macho partisan cocooning. That is, it was the fight-back partisanship of the Daily Kos community that gave him a group of linked-up followers he could make himself a hero of. This included dozens or more women (real or virtual) who idolized him whom he could contact in the space of a coffee break. Weiner was arrogant enough to think he could get away with recklessly exploiting his fame and status in this Web niche in part because he figured his pack would always defend him in a pinch. He was too essential to the fight. The ingenious instant wisdom of the Kos crowd would be too powerful in a clinch. He was almost right about that, though in the end it proved a delusion–a delusion encouraged and enabled by the cocooning phenomenon itself, by the always-on flock of “Weiner, yes” netizens giving him positive feedback for whatever he thought or did.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/16/weinergate-the-search-for-meaning/#ixzz1PXQaJUux