“Weinergate” is much in the news today. In case you’ve somehow missed it, the thin-skinned New York congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn) is denying that a shot of his — it’s just too easy — was sent transnationally this weekend to a 21-year-old Washington State college student whom Weiner, for some inexplicable reason, follows on Twitter.
I would be more than willing to take Weiner at his word, but a.) He would be on this like white on rice if it were happening to a Republican, and b.) His responses have been rolling out like a well-oiled crisis communications campaign. Today, he announced that he has hired a lawyer — but not asked the FBI — to investigate the alleged hack of his account, which he was on at the time of the alleged offense. And, like from a PR textbook, he is enlisting the support of “third-party verifiers” like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), though what Schumer is supposed to verify is a mystery. Presumably there will be no line-up.
I really would be willing to take Weiner at his word — it probably was a hacker — but I am fascinated by the show he is putting on. Let’s wait and see if he calls in the FBI, which would be perfectly appropriate if, indeed, a member of Congress is being impersonated online.
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