UPDATED
Here’s full video of a decidedly testy exchange Weiner had with reporters this afternoon, spearheaded by Dana Bash.
Here’s some of what I’m seeing on Twitter:
DanaBashCNN Dana Bash: Just had a surprisingly confrontational q and a session w/ @repweiner. He came out to talk to us, but wouldn’t answer unanswered questions
rickklein Rick Klein: Rep. Weiner: “I’m not going to talk about this anymore.”
joshtpm Josh Marshall: Weiner On Twitter ‘Hack’: ‘I’m Not Going To Talk About This Anymore’
pressler Jessica Pressler “Evasive Weiner Draws Suspicion” is a headline currently on New York magazine’s homepage. http://nymag.com/
Look over at DailyKos (and sometimes I do because I’m paid to) and you see even that lot is abandoning him in bunches. From ABC and New York to TPM and Kos — that’s quite a center-left sample that is unsatisfied with the congressman’s unsatisfying answers. If he thinks he’s not going to have to talk about this any more, he’s wrong.
The long-term impact of this unfolding story, to my mind, is less about the safety of Weiner’s House seat than it is his ambitions. Folks around the Hill will tell you Weiner’s at heart uninterested — even bored — by Congress, and that he’s there only as a resume filler while waiting for the day Mike Bloomberg decides he wants to retire. So presuming Weiner can hold down his sliver of Brooklyn and Queens, the interesting question is whether something like this going to make Democratic players in the city at large look less favorably on a mayoral run?
Thinking long-term, if Weiner is in the wrong here and is forced to admit it, maybe the best thing for him to do is resign now and hope for a Spitzer-esque bounce-back from the inevitable tanking of his popularity. This town ain’t exactly the capital of marital faithfulness.
Anyway, it’s hard to see Weiner resigning at this point, but we’ve learned with this kind of story that things can change pretty quickly.