to this woman?
Let's start at the beginning. The above photo of someone's weiner, in boxer briefs was sent from the Congressman's twitter account, purportedly to a young female follower/admirer. Gennette Cordova of Seattle is one of roughly 40,000 people who follow Weiner on Twitter. She's one of very few, 200 or so, followed by him. And probably the one of those who has described Weiner as her boyfriend in a tweet.
But the picture actually went to all of Weiner's followers, not just her.
Weiner says his account was hacked. His name is Weiner, it's the internet, people play jokes. And that's why he does not wish to file a police report to apprehend the perpetrator of this crime. Surely hacking the twitter account of a United States Congressman is an offense serious enough to warrent police intervention.
To make matters worse, Weiner responded with his typical sarcasm and obnoxiousness to questions about the picture, even calling one respected reporter a jackass.
The PR nightmare this begat forced Weiner to sit down with every single cable network and try to tell his story. But he may have only made things worse.
He insisted he never sent the photo. But he would not say for sure that it is not a picture of him.
That leads to only one conclusion: this is a picture of him. The picture had to have been taken by the person in it. And he would have to know if he had ever taken this picture or one like it.
So now there are two choices: either he sent the picture. Or a hacker knew about the existence of the picture and hacked into his personal computer to get it.
If there were a hacker going into his personal computer, stealing his intimate photos and disseminating them on Twitter and he doesn't want to prosecute that person, I find that odd.
In order for Weiner's story there are just too many coincidences that would have had to have taken place. According to Occam's Razor, we have to believe it was Weiner's weiner and he meant to send the picture.
11 comments:
He's being a complete jerk-off in his handling of this (puns intended), but I'm not convinced Weiner was trying to pull a Brett Favre here. For all we know, he or his wife took the picture, and someone with an axe to grind got access to it and caused huge problems.
I don't think a hack job is that tough to imagine, but I agree that Weiner's response is questionable.
Andrew Breitbart's involvement does not legitimize the scandal for me, either.
Damino, you can't look at this in its entirety and say "sure someone could have hacked his account."
You have to look at each individual thing that would have had to have happened.
First of all, the picture has to be of him.
So how did a hacker know this photo existed? Or the hacker just got lucky and found it.
The most incriminating thing, which perhaps I didn't make clear is the fact that he was a follower of this 21 year old.
The reason why it looks so bad for him, in order to send someone direct messages on Twitter, private messages no one else can see, the two parties have to be followers of one another.
Why else would he follow her randomly if not to send her direct messages?
That's the part that makes the scenario of "he sent a picture of his own junk to a young woman on Twitter" the most simple, plausible explanation.
Have you seen my wiener?
If the Boxer Briefs Don't Fit You Must Acquit
Great Something About Mary reference, Warren.
Paul, Weiner asked his followers to tweet #WeinerYes if they wanted him to follow them, so that's how some random non-celebrities are among his followed. Rainn Wilson was following me briefly on Twitter, and I doubt it was because he wanted to send me dick pix. So I don't buy into the notion that he was necessarily a perv because of a few college girls that he followed.
I think he is responding terribly and may end up having to resign because of this. And you're right about probability. But his PR gaffes aside, I don't find it hard to believe that he had this photo on his phone/computer and someone looking to take him down disseminated it.
Ok Damino so you are willing to buy that a hacker stole this picture of him (either by knowing it was there or getting lucky).
And you are willing to buy Weiner innocently followed this young woman and the hacker exploited his gregariousness.
Here's the third thing that makes this look really bad for him: why doesn't he want an investigation? Someone ruined his reputation, probably his career, maybe his marriage, and he doesn't want that person apprehended and punished.
Even if he thinks it's a joke, no one else is treating it that way. And the damage done by this little prank certainly makes it a "federal case."
The only logical explanation is that he doesn't want to lie to police or federal investigators.
And taken with those other two points, that's a lot to believe.
Exactly, he doesn't want to lie, but the truth is probably hugely embarrassing, so he'd rather try and let this issue pass.
I think he likely knows the picture is him (or probably him) since he has taken pix like this with his wife or girlfriend or gay lover or whomever, so he's giving this awkward "I can't say with certitude that it's not me" response. But he didn't send the picture to this woman like some kind of harassing Twitter pervert, which is what he has said all along.
Look, his PR efforts are clearly failing, but I think he's trying to tell the truth without further humiliating himself, and an investigation is only going to make matters worse. I know Republicans are drooling over the possibility of bringing this guy down, but I don't think this is another John Edwards or Vito Fossella situation unfolding.
His moms was my hs math teacher...fun fact
Whoever posted that Warren comment is brilliant.
OK so in light of Weiner's press conference today, I was dead wrong and Paul was right. It's that simple. I wanted to believe in the guy, but he's pretty much a creep in my book. Weiner, not Paul, in case that was unclear.
And kudos to Andrew Breitbart. I think generally he's a racist, vindictive piece of human garbage, but he was telling the truth about Weiner and deserves credit.
Damino, you are not getting off that easy.
I'm coming at you, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow.
I think the timing is better.
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