POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

A Nation Hostage

Weinergate enters Day 5.

In a moment that will probably go down in the annals of how not to handle a crisis, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) insisted again on Wednesday that he was not the one who sent a suggestive photo from his Twitter account — but he told NBC News that “I can’t say with certitude” whether the now-famous image is of his own crotch.

Weiner gave a series of television interviews in an attempt to tamp down the furor that began over the weekend when a waist-down photograph of a man in his underwear appeared briefly on his Twitter page. The tweet, which Weiner said he deleted when he saw it, was addressed to a college student who follows him on the social-networking site.

In an interview with CBS News, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) could not say whether a lewd photo of a man's crotch in underwear tweeted from his account was a photo of him. (June 1)

More on this Story

* Weiner's plan to cool Twitter furor backfires
* Listen up, fellas: Naked man-parts? Not so sexy.
* Weiner: ‘Can’t say with certitude’ image isn’t me
* Reliable Source: Rules of Twitter following for VIPs

View all Items in this Story

* Video: Democrat says he didn’t send lewd photo
* Video: Breitbart says Weiner ‘invited scrutiny’
* Weiner hacked? Experts say it can happen
* Weiner, Twitter and the 2013 N.Y. mayoral race
* Video: Weiner dodges questions about photo
* Congressman calls lewd photo a ‘distraction’
* Weiner asks media to ‘respect’ silence on issue
* Democrat says lewd Twitter photo sent by hacker
* Get the latest from PostPolitics

The questions regarding the incident continued into a fourth day, fueled in part by the fact that the controversy is perfect early-summer fodder for cable news and that it involves a lawmaker who is both an intense partisan and an adept user of new media.

As CNN showed the image on the screen, a puzzled Wolf Blitzer pressed the congressman: “You would know if this was your underpants.”

“I appreciate you continuing to flash that at me,” Weiner said in a tone that made it clear he didn’t.

Ace of Spades proposes outlandish theory: Weiner himself did it?

He's wrong, though, that some of these theories are Baroque. They're clearly Rococo. Occam's Rube Goldberg Device.

Of all the missteps that have led him to this duncecap corner, the one that really damned him was when he called the CNN editor with Dana Bash a jackass for trying to do his job, reminding just about every journalist in DC what a total knob he is. If he were a Spider Man villain, he'd be The Knobgoblin.

As Ace and Mickey Kaus remind us, the most telling evidence against Weiner has been his own behavior.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

More Posts - Website