Washington's favorite media-savvy Democrat strikes again:
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Also of note: Even though Weiner initially alleged that his Twitter account was "hacked" (the violation since been downgraded to a "prank"), he is rejecting any formal investigation into the matter by the FBI or Capitol police. Instead, he says he'll contact a private investigative firm to look into everything.
I'm especially interested by Weiner's contention that he's "already answered" the question of whether or not the person in the offending photo is him. When exactly did he answer that question, other than to say that he couldn't say "with certitude" either way? He followed that up by exclaiming, "I've answered enough of these questions!" -- but will continue his media tour throughout the afternoon. Up next? CNN and Fox!
What a mess.
UPDATE - An interesting side note on the political implications of all this from National Journal:
Weiner's district, spanning mostly white neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn, trended more Republican than any other district in the country from the 2000 to the 2008 presidential election. Al Gore carried the district in a landslide, winning 67 percent of the vote. But it gave John Kerry just 56 percent of the vote in 2004, a striking 11 point dip.
The gain was largely attributable to voters' strong support of George W. Bush's counterterrorism policies post-9/11, but four years later John McCain carried the same 44 percent of the vote as Bush, even as President Obama significantly outperformed Kerry across the country.
Weiner himself faced his toughest re-election in his career last year, winning 59 percent of the vote against an underfunded Republican opponent. For Weiner, that was a limp performance - he had always won more than 66 percent of the vote since he first ran for Congress in 1998.