On Tuesday, Congressman Weiner suffered a meltdown to end all meltdowns. To recap: it happened after a lewd photo of a dude’s crotch was sent to a Seattle co-ed from Weiner’s Twitter account. Weiner claims he was hacked. But instead of contacting authorities, he lawyered up.
When reporters asked if he sent the photo, he lost it.
So the question is, why?
Well, he assumed the press would let the scandal blow over – a consequence of inhabiting a protective bubble the press affords liberal politicians.
The problem with that bubble – it can burst when the press sees a story too good to ignore.
Sadly, the Congressman can’t see out of the bubble, and see what’s coming. Spitzer could have warned him.
Hence, the mortifying performance. Weiner looked like a deer in the headlights, trying to joke with the headlights.
The panicky bob of his Adam’s apple seemed to be sending Morse code to his friends in the media: “Why! Why! why! I’m one of you!”
It all screams “guilty!” – a whiny tantrum directed not at a hacker – but the media, his allies.
Too pompous to resign, we’re witnessing finessed damage control. As I write this, Weiner is trying to orchestrate this mess into separate bite-size interviews, with enough time in between for counsel.
It’s like a sausage dictating how it should be cooked.
In the MSNBC interview, Weiner calls the whole thing a prank, “not a federal case.” But, like I said last night, it is a federal case.
If, indeed, the account was hacked.
Drew at Ace of Spades makes a good point: if Weiner says it was a prank, then he’s saying he knows the motivation, and likely, the origin.
Could it have been an angry spouse, tired of her hubby flirting with porn stars? Someone should ask her.
After all, Weiner still won’t deny that it’s him in those shorts.
But a bigger question remains: why isn’t Twitter filing charges? Twitter was the entity who got hacked. Sure, Weiner is a bigtime Congressman, but Twitter is a huge company – their servers were presumably hacked – they have standing to file charges.
It’s as if I left a suitcase full of unicorn Hummel’s at your house, and a burglar broke in and stole that case. Sure, I can file charges, but really, you should.
So I ask – where the hell is Twitter in all this?
And where are my unicorn Hummel’s?