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13 Jun 2011 14:13

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U.S.: The White House annoyed about this Weinergate thing

  • The president feels, we feel at the White House, this is a distraction, as Congressman Weiner has said himself, his behavior was inappropriate, dishonesty was inappropriate.
  • White House Press Secretary Jay Carney • responding to Weinergate. He didn’t go so far as to say Weiner should resign, though. It seems like the White House is pretty upset about this whole thing, which is understandable. Obama just made a speech about jobs today, and it’s easy to imagine him being fed up with Weiner getting all this press. Not only is Weiner’s situation bugging Democrats, but he’s taking press away from Obama. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2011 11:21

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Politics: Weinergate: Story somehow centers upon teenage Delaware girl

  • They were made aware of an alleged contact between Congressman Anthony Weiner and an area teen. The teen has been interviewed and disclosed no information regarding any criminal activity.
  • New Castle County Officer Tracey Duffy • Describing what happened when the New Castle police department interviewed a teenager who talked to Anthony Weiner via Twitter. While the consensus — from the teen, her family, the police department and  Weiner himself — seems to be that the conversation was innocuous, the fear is that he actually said something really creepy to a teen, in a Mark Foley sense. But, in case you needed proof that this is a media circus, we’d like to pull this sentence from the story: “A shirtless man approached reporters standing outside the family’s house and began threatening them with an ax. New Castle County police took the man into custody.” Good God, really? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jun 2011 10:32

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Politics: On Anthony Weiner and the drumbeat for his resignation

  • This is a massive overreaction and I don’t understand it.
  • Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan • Offering one of the few defenses to Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has been told by members of both parties that he should resign. Even close friends of his — including Fox News commentator Kirsten Powers, an ex-girlfriend of Weiner’s — are forcing the issue. In that case, what’s a little surprising is that he went out of his way to help Powers when her parents were stuck in Egypt during the Arab Spring, and she defended Weiner long after many correspondents quit. It took a lot for her to turn on him — though she now claims he used her. But for us, Sloan’s point — that Weiner likely did nothing illegal, considering that all of his affairs were virtual in nature, and a guy who actually paid for prostitutes, Sen. David Vitter, is still in office — isn’t really getting heard. He screwed up, but really? Really? Come on now. People do worse things every day.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jun 2011 23:16

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Politics: Yes, Anthony Weiner messed up, but come on!

  • Should Weiner have done this? For an elected public official, it was unwise, inappropriate, stupid. For a human being, it remains well within the bounds of, well, human.
  • Andrew Sullivan • Summing up our feelings on the Anthony Weiner disaster. Look, no one’s saying it was an honorable thing to do, but politicians regularly do much, much worse things than send a picture of their wang to someone online. And they don’t always get called out for it, either. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jun 2011 22:10

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Politics: Obama’s head economics guy is headed out the door

  • Goodbye, Goolsbee: Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s chief economic advisor and the only guy in Washington who spells “Austan” with an “a,” is leaving the White House to resume teaching in Chicago. It’s a coincidence that the administration happened to announce this news today, when it was certain to be drowned out by the torrent of Anthony Weiner stories. I mean, it’s not like the White House is nervous that Goolsbee’s departure might create a perception of uncertainty regarding their grasp of the economy, right? Nah. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jun 2011 02:32

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Politics: Weinergate devolves into flood of conspiracy theories

  • Anthony Weiner‘s got a lot of problems this week, but they’re sorta inflated. First off, the story is kind of at a point where fatigue is very high. However, despite technical evidence, including a very obvious yFrog flaw that would’ve made it easy to post a rogue tweet on Weiner’s account, the congressman’s performance this week has proven to be a complete liability, giving conservatives enough rope to hang him with. (By the way, just wanted to point out — we discovered the @PatriotUSA76 angle 15 hours before DailyKos broke it.) But at this point, only the die-hards are really, truly following this story. One of them, by the way, is a reporter for Mediaite — Tommy Christopher. We criticized Mediaite for their aggressive coverage Thursday but will give some credit today. You guys did some good work that deserves praise. More info:
  • useful Mediaite’s piece on Dan Wolfe (@PatriotUSA76) makes the strongest argument yet of Wolfe building a Wiener conspiracy … around underage girls. Daily Kos looks really bad in the piece, by the way.
  • crazy Not long after Wolfe deleted his Twitter account, the blog Ace of Spades HQ posted a screed on why he’s “irrelevant” in the scheme of Weinergate using a kinda-convoluted poker metaphor. Hrm.
  • crazier Have any patience left? You might lose it after reading the “interview” a conservative blogger did with Wolfe — essentially a long, unedited chat log. Take an Adderall before reading this; you’re gonna need it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 May 2011 19:33

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Politics: Why we’re taking a break from more Weinergate news

  • At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject. I don’t. This was a prank, and a silly one. I’m focused on my work.
  • Rep. Anthony Weiner • Trying to draw a line in the sand on this whole Weinergate story, which has certainly gotten a bit crazier over the past day. The Atlantic Wire has a roundup of the story, which has gotten to the point of farce. CNN also got Weiner on camera today, where he seemed at least a little annoyed to be taking the questions. But ultimately, though, this piece of evidence (grabbed by Soup) is the strongest against Weiner doing anything wrong. Also, has anyone noticed how Mediaite has kinda gone crazy over this story? We love the site and everything, but they got a Photoshop expert to analyze the photo. A bit much, eh? They’re not the only ones, but you know what, we’re going to leave this mess alone for a while. The EXIF data is good enough for us. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
 
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