First he said his Twitter feed had been hacked to send a photo of a man's crotch to a Seattle woman. Then he denounced as "outrageous" questions about whether he had inappropriate online relationships with young women.
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By Richard Drew, AP
Finally, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner acknowledged Monday he had engaged in sexually charged exchanges on the Internet with a half-dozen women during the past three years.
The New York Democrat apologized to his wife and his constituents but said he had no intention of resigning. He argued that he had shown bad judgment but never violated his oath of office — thus setting up a test of voters' willingness to separate personal behavior from professional performance.
Weiner's news conference in a New York hotel reflected a dramatic collision between the anonymity of social media and the relentless scrutiny of public officials by partisans also enabled by the Internet.
"This was me doing a dumb thing, doing it repeatedly, and lying about it," Weiner said.
On Monday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, was in a New York courtroom to deny charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Last week, former North Carolina senator John Edwards was indicted on charges that he violated campaign finance laws by directing hush money to his mistress and their child.It also was the latest in a string of incidents in which men in high office have been accused of behaving badly.
In recent weeks, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to fathering a child with a former member of his household staff. Nevada senatorJohn Ensign resigned rather than testify before theSenate Ethics Committee in a case involving an extramarital affair with a staffer. The bipartisan list goes on, from some who chose to resign to others, including former president Bill Clinton, who didn't. He chose to stay and fight after allegations, later confirmed, that he had a sexual relationship with an intern.
Politicians are among those who sometimes believe the rules don't apply to them, according to psychologists and sociologists who study behavior. They say the self-confidence politicians must exude to succeed can lead them to believe they are invincible, and ego can lead them astray.
Sociologist Pepper Schwartz of the University of Washington says Weiner — like many other politicians caught in sex scandals — apparently dismissed the women's ability to protect themselves.
"He made the mistake others have: underestimating everybody else and overestimating yourself," Schwartz says. "That's the thread that goes through these things. Whether it's the IMF guy who thinks the maid is a throwaway person or Bill Clinton, who assumes his word is bigger than her word. All these men thought these women were beyond holding them responsible, and they've all been wrong."
Social media networks have opened up new possibilities for missteps — and for quick and dramatic exposure of such scandals.
"I always give candidates a briefing on what to do and not to do with social media," says Joseph Mercurio, a Democratic consultant in New York, "but I never thought I'd have to tell a congressman to not be sexting."
The allegations against Weiner had been pursued by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, who had posted compromising photos of Weiner on his website, BigGovernment.com. He said they were part of a cache of intimate online chats, e-mails and photos in his possession.
ABC News also released an interview with Meagan Broussard, 26, a single mother from Texas, who provided photos, e-mails, Facebook messages and cellphone call logs that she said detailed a flirtatious, sexually explicit electronic relationship with Weiner that began in April.
In Facebook messages, she said, Weiner would say, "just good morning, how are you doing, what are you doing today? What are you wearing? What do you like? You know, in the bedroom, that sort of thing," she said.
In one Facebook chat, Broussard said she asked Weiner, "Why are you so open?"
"He replied, 'I'm an open book. Maybe too open.'"
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of theDemocratic Congressional Campaign Committee, each called for an investigation by the Ethics Committee to determine whether House rules were violated.
Pelosi — who Weiner says expressed her displeasure when he called her before his news conference — said in a statement she was "deeply disappointed and saddened." Israel said, "Ultimately, Anthony and his constituents will make a judgment about his future."
Republican congressional leaders generally declined to comment.
A bizarre and brutal news conference
The news conference was like a car crash: Brutal to watch but impossible to look away from.
In a bizarre turn, Brieitbart took the podium at the Sheraton hotel where reporters were waiting for Weiner to arrive. "I'm here for vindication," he said, saying he was upset about being "accused of being a hacker against a congressman."
When Weiner finally arrived, he read an opening statement that brought gasps.
"I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended to send as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle," he said. "Once I realized I had posted it to Twitter, I panicked, I took it down, and said that I had been hacked. I then continued … to stick to that story, which was a hugely regrettable mistake."
There was more, he admitted: "Over the past few years, I have engaged in several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and occasionally on the phone with women I had met online. … I'm deeply ashamed of my terrible judgment and actions. I'll be glad to take any questions that you might have."
There was no shortage of those.
For almost a half-hour, Weiner fielded shouted inquiries. He said he had never met with any of the women in person and said he believed they were adults, though he said it was possible they were not.
He stood alone, looked pained and occasionally fought back tears.
Afterward, political analysts called it the strangest performance by a politician they could recall. Some compared it with the rambling musings by then-South Carolina governorMark Sanford when he acknowledged traveling to Argentina to meet with his mistress at a time aides said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Mercurio, who teaches communications at Fordham University, called Weiner's performance "the worst damage control I have ever seen from a politician." He called it "mind boggling" that Weiner lied about the Twitter photo for a week, only to hold a news conference that opened up "15 more channels of questioning" about the identities of the women, their ages and the nature of their conversations with Weiner.
"He has severely damaged himself, and . . . it's not going to stop," he said.
Mercurio said Weiner's political future, including aspirations to succeed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been impaired without "dramatic personal and political rehabilitation. … Everyone is going to have in the back of their minds: 'How can we trust him to be the mayor of New York?'"
Holding his House seat also may have gotten tougher.
Weiner's self-inflicted travails and the political vulnerabilities that follow could put him at risk as New York lawmakers redraw congressional lines. In the wake of the 2000 Census, the Empire State is losing two congressional seats, probably including one Democrat-held seat from downstate. As of now, no Democratic incumbent is retiring, and just whose district would be carved up hasn't been clear.
Some cautioned against assuming Weiner's political career was over.
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran New York Democratic strategist, said it "would be stupid to count this guy out" of politics.
"Maybe he won't be mayor of New York City in 2013. But he may be in the future, and he'll be almost impossible to beat in his home congressional district," he said. "He will raise the money. He will outwork anybody. It ain't over."
Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management consultant and author of Damage Control, agreed.
"There are plenty of people in New York who are politically liberal who separate sexual behavior from political performance, and there's a decent chance they will do so now," he said. "Unless you're a sociopath, watching someone endure that is a very, very distressing thing. He finally was honest and you could feel that this was someone who was tortured."
The good wife?
Not on hand for news conference was Huma Abedin, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who married Weiner last summer.
Then, they released a wedding photo that showed them embracing under a tree, she in a long flowing dress designed by Oscar de la Renta. She wore a jeweled choker around her neck, a family heirloom. The congressman said he was "over the moon" about her.
Described by the New York Daily News as his "glamorous gal pal" and by The Hindu News as an "Indo-Pak beauty," Abedin widely was seen as a catch for the congressman. Born in Michigan, the daughter of an Indian father and Pakistani mother, she grew up inSaudi Arabia before returning to the United States to attend college.
In 1996, she went to work for Hillary Clinton, then the first lady, and has been by her side ever since. Former president Clinton officiated at her wedding to Weiner on July 10.
Weiner said he had revealed his online relationships to her before their marriage. When he told her about the current situation, "She was very unhappy, she was very disappointed, and she told me as much. And she also told me that she loved me and we're going to get through this."
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