Idiot for the day

David Chen and Javier Hernandez have an article in The New York Times about yet another asshole politician (or is that redundant?):

Anthony D. Weiner’s improbable campaign for mayor was engulfed by a new scandal involving explicit online messages, imperiling his political resurrection two years after he resigned from Congress over similar behavior.
Weiner, appearing solemn and a bit worn as he faced more than a hundred journalists at a hastily-arranged news conference, acknowledged that his habit of sending sexual images and text messages to female fans had continued for more than a year after he left Congress vowing to seek treatment and change his behavior. “It’s in our rearview mirror, but it’s not far,” he said.
The revelation collides with the narrative Weiner has offered throughout the campaign, in which he has repeatedly suggested that he has spent his time since leaving Congress rehabilitating himself and repairing his family relationships. After a late entry into the Democratic primary, he had rapidly risen in the polls, and performed strongly in fund-raising, as his relentless focus on ideas and his omnipresence helped ease the concerns of many voters.
Seeming to recognize the fragility of his public standing, he pleaded with New Yorkers to trust his assertions that he is now a changed man, despite news that his online adventures— some conducted under the pseudonym of Carlos Danger— had persisted through last summer, after the birth of his child.
Speaking amid the cramped cubicles of a vacant Chelsea office, Weiner, alternately chastened and defiant, vowed to press ahead with his campaign. His wife, Huma Abedin, stood by his side, at times smiling at him, but at times staring at the floor or at the cabinets behind her.
Publicly airing the couple’s private pain, Abedin said her decision to stay with Weiner was “not an easy choice”, and said “Anthony’s made some horrible mistakes, both before he resigned from Congress and after. We discussed all of this before Anthony decided he would run for mayor, so really what I want to say is, I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him,” she added. Abedin, a longtime close aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, spoke haltingly about the ups and downs of her marriage, making it clear that reconciling with Weiner after the scandal was a long and difficult process. “It took a lot of work, and a whole lot of therapy, to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony,” she said, reading from a prepared text that she slowly unfolded at the lectern.
The news startled his aides and prompted three of his rivals in the mayoral campaign— Bill de Blasio and Sal F. Albanese, both Democrats, and John A. Catsimatidis, a Republican— to demand that he drop out. “Enough is enough,” de Blasio told reporters at a news conference on a Chelsea street corner. “His presence in this race continues to diminish the debate, and it’s time for his presence in this race to end.”
The National Organization for Women in New York City also called on Weiner to drop out, calling him “clearly and compellingly unfit for public office.”
Weiner was undeterred, saying simply: “I’m sure many of my opponents would like me to drop out of the race.” He went straight from the news conference to a forum on HIV and AIDS issues (photo), arriving late, as usual, and smiling as he was greeted with a warm round of applause. He told the audience that many voters might be turned off by the mistakes he made, but he emphasized his credentials as an outsider, saying he was the only candidate in the race who would “shake things up. I admit it: there are a lot of people who probably listen to me and say, ‘You know what, you’re not a very good messenger for these things,’ ” he said. “I don’t dispute it.” As he spoke passionately about issues like housing, gay rights and health care, distinguishing himself from his rivals by rising from his chair and gesticulating forcefully, the audience responded warmly, with shouts of “Yes, that’s right!” and “You the man!”
The turbulent day began when BuzzFeed posted an article calling attention to posts on The Dirty, a website which describes itself as a purveyor of gossip and satire, and which warns that its “postings may contain erroneous or inaccurate information”. The Dirty said that it had spoken with a woman, whom it did not name, who provided copies of her communications with a man who was apparently Weiner. The man engaged in explicit discussions of sexual acts he said he fantasized about performing with her, and sent her a picture of his penis; she told him, “Your health care rants were a huge turn-on.” The woman, 22 at the time, alleged that Weiner offered her an apartment, and proposed that he visit her.
At one point, Weiner called the woman “a walking fantasy”. But he also seemed aware that the conversations could be dangerous, and later asked the woman to “do me a solid. Could you hard delete all our chats.” In another exchange, he appeared to be in a reflective mood, and wrote, “I’m deeply flawed.”
Weiner has suggested that the essence of the posts was true, although he did not confirm any details. “While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong,” he said in a statement before the news conference. “Some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after, but the fact is that was also the time that my wife and I were working through some things in our marriage,” he added.
Nik Richie, the blogger who posted the exchanges on The Dirty, declined to be interviewed, saying in a statement, “I’m just doing my job.” Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed, said a reader had called his attention to the blog posts.
Even within Weiner’s inner circle, which had been shocked by his dishonesty when the original scandal erupted in 2011, there was a wave of surprise and dismay over the disclosures, according to people close to the campaign. But his advisers said Weiner had not seriously considered withdrawing from the campaign, arguing that he had previously warned the public that there might be new revelations.
“I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out and today they have,” Weiner told reporters. “I want to again say that I am very sorry to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption this has caused.”
The timing of the new disclosure, however, is politically perilous: it arrives just as many New Yorkers are tuning into the mayor’s race, and as rivals desperately search for ways to wound Weiner before the 10 September primary. A New York Times/Siena College poll released last week found that 59 percent of New York City’s registered voters said Weiner deserved another chance at elected office, despite his past behavior. About two-thirds of men said he deserved a second chance, compared with about half of the women.
“I hope they are willing to still continue to give me a second chance and I hope they realize that in many ways what happened today was something that frankly had happened before, but it doesn’t represent all that much that is new,” Weiner said.
Weiner rarely shrinks from question-and-answer sessions, relishing his time jousting with reporters. But he seemed wary of a prolonged interrogation. After a few minutes, he turned to his wife, thanked the press and began to turn away. Just then, a reporter lobbed a final inquiry about the latest revelations. “Why should we trust your judgment?”
Weiner kept walking, leaving the question unanswered.

Rico says you can't be chastened and defiant at the same time; he's going with not-ndastened...