Congressman Anthony "Wags" Weiner, D-NY and sitting member on the
House Energy Committee's Investigations Subcomittee,(corrected) says he is "done talking about" the scandal involving the alleged hacking of his Twitter account over the Memorial Day weekend.
The scandal, centering around a sexually suggestive photograph sent to a Seattle coed, one of several attractive young women the Congressman followed through his Twitter account including at least one porn star, has become an unexpected
cause celébre on the internet, a wave fronted by conservative bloggers including
Robert Stacy McCain and
Ace of Spades, atop a turbulent body of Twitter comments.
Porn star Ginger Lee counted Congressman Weiner among her
followers, as did several other young women.
While leftwing bloggers used the burgeoning scandal as an excuse to attack rightwing internet figures such as
Andrew Breitbart and Dan Wolfe (
patriotUSA76), and conservative bloggers used it to blast the mainstream media for its reluctance to cover Democratic scandals, Weiner's own explanations have varied widely and colorfully, from a claim his account had been hacked to calling it a prank to blaming an unnamed staffer. However none of the stories have jibed with Twitter's own policies and procedures, nor has the Congressman, who routinely handles sensitive information in his Congressional role, called for any official investigation into the degree to which his and his office's information security procedures may have been compromised. Instead, he has acquired legal counsel; an inexplicable move more commonly found among suspects in a crime instead of its victims, according to various lawyers and law enforcement authorities. Weiner himself has shown increasingly erratic behavior as the story spread, culminating in a recent on-air tantrum against respected CNN producer Ted Barrett.
Formerly known for his hardline and combative presentation of the Democratic party line in House affairs, Weiner's continued refusal to investigate this problem or cooperate in any other investigations raises a point of concern as to how far above his elected duties the Congressman intends to place his personal problems.
"Screw everybody else; I'm the one who has to get out of this alive..."
Or perhaps it doesn't.
