Thursday, 16 June 2011

Wiener To Resign

Not to be out done by the Wieners in Vancouver, Anthony Wiener apparently will resign.

Weiner to Resign from Congress

Published June 16, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Scandal-scarred Rep. Anthony Weiner will resign from his House office on Thursday, sources tell Fox News, ending his once-promising political career after his sexually-charged online behavior was exposed.

Weiner, who has scheduled a press conference in New York at 2 p.m. ET, spoke with top leaders including Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, sources tell Fox News.

For three weeks now, Weiner has been embroiled in a scandal over lewd pictures and messages that he sent to at least six women on Twitter and Facebook over three years.

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On Monday, Weiner took a two-week leave from the House and is reported to be in treatment at an undisclosed location. But he had been facing a revolt from Democratic leaders, who had planned to meet Thursday to consider whether to strip Weiner of his role on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

He is expected to resign ahead of that meeting.

House Speaker John Boehner said he had not yet received a resignation letter early Thursday, but it could be read on the House floor after Weiner does submit it. A resignation would initiate a special election in New York -- a scenario that would favor Democrats.

Weiner was not on Capitol Hill on Thursday, and the doors to his office are now locked.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi refused to speak about Weiner at her weekly news conference on Thursday, saying that she would issue a statement after Weiner held his press conference.

Weiner has told friends he wanted to speak with his pregnant wife, Huma Abedin, before deciding whether to resign. She returned to Washington early Wednesday from a trip to Africa with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The House Ethics Committee on Monday began a preliminary inquiry that could bloom into a full investigation if Weiner ignores calls to resign.

The announcement that he would depart came after the scandal grew even stranger when a former porn actress who exchanged emails and messages with Weiner said Wednesday he asked her to lie about their interactions.

Porn star Ginger Lee said Wednesday that Weiner asked her to lie about their online relationship, and he should resign.

"I think Anthony Weiner should resign because he lied to the public and the press for more than a week," Lee said describing a phone conversation that took place on June 2 in which the two spoke.

"It might never have turned into this if he had told the truth, but he kept lying," Lee said during a news conference in New York with her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Lee, from La Vergne, Tenn., said she and Weiner exchanged about 100 emails between March and June, after Lee posted a supportive statement about the congressman on her blog. In several situations, Lee said Weiner turned the conversation toward sex.

"'I have wardrobe demands too. I need to highlight my package,"' Weiner wrote Lee, in an email read aloud at the news conference by Allred.

Fox News' Jana Winter contributed to this report.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Wow, It Just Keeps Getting Worse For Him

Ex-porn star implicated in Weiner sexting scandal: report

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner reacts during a news conference in New York, Monday, June 6, 2011.

RICHARD DREW/AP

Thestar.com

Less than 24 hours after a U.S. congressman’s sexting and lewd photos admission, a fresh accusation describes his alleged elaborate cover-up coaching of a former porn star.

Disgraced New York Rep. Anthony Weiner offered “a professional PR type person” and scripted a denial for Ginger Lee, the website TMZ.com reported.

Weiner, who was re-elected to a seventh term in November, has apologized for his behaviour but refused to resign. U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has ordered an ethics investigation.

The TMZ disclosure raised the possibility Weiner involved congressional staff in wrongdoing.

Lee was reported to be one of the six women Weiner was exchanging sexual emails and photos with, which Weiner denied for more than a week before an emotional admission on Monday.

But midway through those denials, Weiner had emailed Lee on June 1, according to TMZ:

“The key is to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it. Have a couple of iterations of: ‘This is silly. Like so many others, I follow Rep. Weiner on Twitter. I don’t know him and have never met him. He briefly followed me and sent me a dm. saying thank you for the follow. That’s it.’“

The Democratic congressman, once a rising star and possible New York mayoral candidate, also suggested: “And then maybe insert some y’all s in there.”

On June 2, TMZ reported, Weiner sent Lee a proposed media statement that read: “I have nothing to do with the situation involving Rep Weiner. All I can say about that is that I’m a fan of his. Rep. Weiner sent me one short direct message thanking me for following him. I have never met Rep. Weiner and he has never sent me anything innappopriate (sic) ...”

Lee has written in a statement on the conservative website BigGovernment.com, which first reported the scandal, that she contacted Weiner by email April 20 to tell him he was “hot” in a video he posted on his Facebook site and got a quick response.

Weiner apologized to Andrew Breitbart, the BigGovernment.com blogger, on Monday — as well as to his wife of 11 months, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Abedin was not at the news conference.

Breitbart kept up the attack Tuesday, appearing on NBC’s Today show to warn he had an X-rated picture of Weiner he was keeping in case of reprisals from the congressman.

“If you’re looking for some kind of deep explanation, I don’t have one,” Weiner said at his news conference confessional. “It was just me doing a very dumb thing.”

The New York Times described Weiner as “a fiery, publicity-craving wisecracker with a reputation as a Romeo and a habit of turning up in the tabloids. He can be overbearing and intense and pushes his staff and himself unrelentingly.”

Meagan Broussard, one of the six women with whom Weiner exchanged sexual emails, toldABC News she also got a quick response from Weiner after she commented on one of his speeches on April 20.

Both women said Weiner kept trying to divert the exchanges toward sex.

“I don't think he's a bad guy. I think he's got issues just like everybody else,” Broussard, 26, told the network Monday night.

“I haven't told the truth and have done things I deeply regret,” Weiner said at the news conference. “I brought pain to people I care about.”

A photograph of his crotch in grey underpants sent to college student Genette Cordova, 21, on May 27 was supposed to be “a joke,” he said. The photo found its way onto Weiner’s Twitter page.

His denials continued until a new, identifiable photo of Weiner shirtless came to light on Monday.

Another New York congressman, Chris Lee, resigned in February under pressure from his Republican party after sending a photograph of himself shirtless to a woman he met on Craigslist.