Thursday, June 2, 2011

Anthony Weiner Investigation Forthcoming?

I'm not sure if the latest developments are all that significant. Anthony Weiner's probably safe for now, unless somebody with real power puts the pressure on for an investigation. A wonderfully clear and concise case for investigation is offered by Jack Ford, in his interview with the lovely Erica Hill at CBS News: "Jack Ford Speaks to Erica Hill." And a report from Nancy Cordes also at CBS hits on the key inconsistencies in Rep. Weiner's denials: "Anthony Weiner Avoids Denying Racy Pic Is of Him." That said, this tweet from Katie Couric powerfully condenses the abject failure of the mainstream press to take seriously dirtbag Democratic scandals. And that's just Couric. MSNBC's the left's institutional channel, and Weiner got yesterday's softball interview of the day with Rachel Maddow. NewsBusters has an analysis of the interview, with some video highlights: "Maddow Gets Weiner to Admit That Pickle in Twitter Pic Could Be His." Maddow's queries are nearly all open-ended and she specifically avoids asking the key question: Why hasn't Weiner gone to the authorities?

Weiner is completely at ease with Maddow, of course. Contrast that with Bret Baier's interview yesterday, where the issue of contacting the FBI nearly burst a couple of Weiner's vessels. So, we've hit the wall on this story unless new evidence emerges or the pressure builds on Weiner to really come clean. If Weiner's innocent, why is he acting so guilty? And from the Wall Street Jounal, "Police could figure out Weiner guilt or innocence":
NEW YORK — There's one way Rep. Anthony Weiner could show that he didn't send a salacious photo to a female college student from his Twitter account: Ask law enforcement to investigate.

The New York congressman has so far declined to ask for an investigation into the photo, saying it's not a worthy use of government resources. The U.S. Capitol Police said it would not launch an investigation unless requested.

In asking a private security firm to investigate instead, Weiner won't be able to prove his innocence by obtaining logs from Twitter showing where his account was accessed from. Twitter says it requires a subpoena or court order to hand over such information. A subpoena or court order would have to be initiated by police or the FBI, not private detectives.

The scandal, which erupted last weekend, has been fueled by Weiner's initial refusal to answer questions about it. Although he started explaining his side Wednesday in a series of media interviews, some of his answers were perplexing.

Weiner was clear about one thing: He says he didn't send the picture, which was addressed to one of his Twitter followers, identified by news outlets as Genette Cordova.

If he didn't send it, that points to someone else using his account at Twitter or at yFrog, the photo-sharing site that stored the picture, according to conservative website BigGovernment.com, which first reported on the tweet.

Sites such as Twitter usually keep logs of which Internet addresses are used to access an account, sort of like an online guestbook. It doesn't contain names, but these numerical Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses identify computers and phones.
That's really it. The rest is just partisan baloney at this point ...

RELATED: At The Other McCain, "#WeinerGate: Who Is @PatriotUSA76? @AndrewBreitbart Wants to Know."