The evidence is clear: Weiner sent the tweet

Baltimore Sun ^ | Luke Broadwater

[nickcarraway]

Once you accept this premise, all of his behavior suddenly makes sense. After consulting with several communications experts for this post, my belief is now reinforced.

"I think this is one of the worst public relations strategies regarding an embarrassing event for a public figure that I have witnessed," writes Towson University communications professor Richard Vatz in an email about Weiner's press interactions. "It is obviously a picture of him, taken for a possible variety of reasons, but his inelegant warding off of the inquiries should have instead been a refusal to engage the issue. That would not have solved the problem, but it would have lessened the humiliating spectacle which exacerbates his problems."

Without further ado, here's the evidence from Weiner's behavior that I believe makes the case clear.

1) Weiner's comments that he cannot say "with certitude" that the photo is of him.

This was the admission that first started to give him away. The very fact that he has penis photos of himself on his computer (or elsewhere on the Internet) that can be "manipulated," as he suggests, proves he has history of engaging in this kind of behavior. This was the first truly bad decision Weiner made in covering this up. By trying to weave into his lie a "half truth," the lie started to unravel.

2) His admission that he does all his own tweeting.

[miss marmelstein]

Did anybody but the most partisan dems believe that this creep was innocent? How many times can you sell the Brooklyn Bridge to these gullible fools?

[Vaquero]

the Weiner tweeets his meat....

(you know a bogus email addy works so much better than your own twitter/facebook account...I personally refuse to have one)

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Weiner is a peter tweeter.

[org.whodat]

Weiner was always a Peter Pan type of guy.

[canuck_conservative]

A 5-year-old could tell that Weiner was lying from Day 1.

The only people that don’t see that are ones that don’t WANT to see it.

Personally, I think he was just drunk at the time - it was a Saturday night, right? - but he can’t admit that, because it would be further ammunition against him.

Darwin’s Law apparently applies to the politically stupid, too.

[Oceander]

Weiner is a peter tweeter.

That's Mr. Peter Tweeter to you.

/jk

However, I do have a consolation prize for ya, a copy of the "happy" couple's wedding shot (to compliment the crotch shot we've all already seen):

[aruanan]

Weiner responded: “You know, I can’t say with certitude.”

A. Does he wear gray briefs?
B. Is he in the habit of taking photos of his crotchal region?
C. Does he have hairless legs?
D. Is he rather moderately endowed?

Does he mean he can answer only 50% of these questions? If he can't definitively answer such basic questions then he's in real trouble.

[Diogenesis]

rbg81 "If Weiner were a Republican,
he’d be hounded from office as of last Wednesday."

[Oceander]

Another, potentially stronger, piece of circumstantial evidence that the Peter Tweet came from Weiner is the data on the tweets that came before, and after, the tweet in question.

This image shows the timing of, and the source software for, those tweets:



(this is from the twitter stream data archived by tweetcongress.org)

This is not helpful to Weiner for several reasons. First, Weiner sends his tweets in three ways, generally - direct from the website, by email from his blackberry, and using TweetDeck - and all of the relevant tweets were sent using tweetdeck. Second, and more damning, is the fact that there is a three and a half hour gap between the last tweet before the peter tweet and the first tweet after the peter tweet, both of which we know are from Weiner. If a mythical hacker had really hacked Weiner's account to send the peter tweet, that hacker would have had to guess which of those three methods Weiner would be using, otherwise the hack would be evident. Why? Because the next tweet comes just 4 minutes after the peter tweet, which clearly suggests that there was continuity between the two, and that timing gap is consistent with the timing to the last tweet, which was sent out at 11.36. So, first strike - if there was a hacker, s/he would have had to have correctly guessed which tweeting platform Weiner was about to use (if any hacker were that prescient, my guess is they'd be making tons of money in the stock market, or playing professional poker, not mucking around in the twitter accounts of a loser politician). Second, consider the timing - there is a three-and-a-half hour gap between two tweets that we know are Weiner's, and the suspect tweet comes just 4 minutes before the next genuine Weiner tweet. The odds of that happening are rather small. So, second strike - the probabilities are against Weiner here. All we need now is the definitive third strike, and Mr. Peter Tweeter is out of here.

[Ann Archy]

He’s a Peter Tweeter. What MAN does crap like this??? SICKO!!!

[Oceander]

“Sicko?” Not as per liberals and liberalism, apparently.

[Ann Archy]

Liberalism is a MENTAL DISORDER!

[bigbob]

“taken for a possible variety of reasons”

...the mind boggles at the number of possibilies

[GlockThe Vote]

“Further preface: I initially believed Weiner. It made sense to me that some right-winger hacked his account in a mean-spirited attack to discredit him personally. Knowing nothing more, I accepted this explanation at face value. But then I heard Weiner start to explain himself and everything changed. The more he talked, the more it became obvious that not only is the photo of him, but he sent it.”

_______________________________________________________-

Ha ha ha ha lmfao!!!!

Even this reporter thought originally it was the VRWC!!!!

what morons these libs are.

[yldstrk]

At least if he said he was drunk that would mitigate his intent.

[MarkL]

I don't care whether on not he sent "the tweet." What pisses me off is is claim that his account was hacked. If so, it's at the very least a BIG problem for twitter. They should be all over this, to try to reassure their customers that it couldn't happen to them. I don't know if they're a publicly traded company, but if they are, their shareholders should be up in arms.

My guess is that from day one, when Weiner "lawyered up" he and his have been pressuring Twitter NOT to investigate this. And if that's the case, there needs to be an FBI investigation into Weiner's conduct.

Mark

[DrC]

The article ends as follows: “Only when we accept the truth can we truly move on to something else. Otherwise, questions will continue to plague him.”

So long as the peter Tweeter comes clean, this individual appears quite prepared to “move on.” Forget about the unseemliness of Weiner’s Tweeting his peter to a 21-year old. One would think that his flagrant lying to the public/press about this issue would suffice to demonstrate once and for all he is absolutely unfit to serve as a member of Congress. What kind of message does “moving on” send after such a contemptible display of behavior towards his constituents? Until/unless we reliably punish members of Congress who lie in this fashion, we can expect such caddish behavior to continue.

The Dems didn’t exactly strike a blow for public integrity when they elected to “stand by their man” during Clinton’s impeachment.

[stevie_d_64]

Ok, I’m confused...Did Weiner send the tweet, or did his Weiner send the tweet???

You know there is a difference, and they will state there is a difference...

[Vaduz]

MSM gears up for detour story what will it be ?.