he video: Finally, the truth comes out. In an emotional press conference Monday, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) admitted to online relationships with six women over the last three years. (See the video below.) Though Weiner has been hounded by reporters for more than a week over a crotch shot of a man's bulging underwear sent from his Twitter account to a Seattle coed, he's repeatedly insisted a hacker was responsible. But on Monday, more inappropriate photos and damning claims surfaced, and Weiner came clean. "I have made terrible mistakes that have hurt the people that I cared about the most, and I am terribly sorry," he said. A "visibly shaken and tearful" Weiner refused to resign, however, saying that he didn't break any laws or congressional rules. Weiner said he never met any of the women in question (the closest he got was talking on the phone), and that he and his wife, Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will stay together. In a "bizarre" twist before Weiner even took the stage, conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart, whose Big Government website has driven the Weiner expose, grabbed the mic, berated Weiner, and claimed that he still has an as-yet-unpublished "X-rated" image of the congressman.
The reaction: "Clearly the lying congressman hopes to continue his political career," says Thomas Lifson at American Thinker. But Weiner, a well-known berater of Republicans, can’t possibly keep serving as the Democrats' "attack dog." Hold on, says David Dayen at Firedoglake. It sounds like Weiner is a sexting enthusiast who operated from "some basement computer in his house." I'm not sure he has to resign over that. Agreed, says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly. "On the Political Sex Scandal Richter Scale," this barely registers. "He didn’t commit adultery (Ensign), he didn’t hire prostitutes (Vitter), he didn’t solicit anyone in an airport bathroom (Craig), he didn’t pretend to be someone else in order to try to pick up women (Lee), he didn’t abandon his office for a rendezvous with his lover (Sanford), he didn’t leave his first two wives after they got sick (Gingrich), and he didn’t have a child with his housekeeper (Schwarzenegger)." Watch Weiner's mea culpa:
- The last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.
- How typeface influences the way we read and think
- WATCH: Australia's army chief demonstrates how you address sex abuse
- Turkey's 'Standing Man': Can a lone protester change history?
- 32 TV shows to watch in 2013 [Updated]
- Ben Bernanke to Wall Street: It's the beginning of the end
- The daily gossip: The 50 Shades of Grey movie finally has a director, and more
- Everything you need to know about the cronut
- 7 bizarre tales of people coming back from the dead
- The culture war is over, and conservatives lost
- Michael Hastings, remembered
- How typeface influences the way we read and think
- Former employees say Bank of America lied to a lot of homeowners
- How immigration reform could save taxpayers nearly $1 trillion
- The last telegram ever is about to be sent
- The last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.
- WATCH: Australia's army chief demonstrates how you address sex abuse
- The daily gossip: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have allegedly chosen a baby name, and more
- Can fetuses masturbate?
- What language is your baby speaking?
