The Incredible Shrinking Weiner
A stupid, bungled scandal—with no sex!—neuters a Democratic star.
The scandal still matters. And if it ruined the reputation of one man—that would be Weiner—it helped repair another's. Andrew Breitbart, who became a conservative in part because of his respect for Clarence Thomas, saw Weiner drop a stick of dynamite on the ground. He hurled it right back at him. At 4 p.m. on Monday (that's 1 p.m. in Seattle), Breitbart took the podium at the Sheraton where Weiner was about to speak, and fielded 11 minutes of questions about his role in this scandal. The rest of the media, which had showed signs of Breitbart fatigue, has to take him seriously again, after questionable editing and judgment on videos about NPR and Shirley Sherrod. The evidence of Breitbart's return to influence was in the middle of ABC's interview with a 26-year-old woman who communicated with Weiner.
"Breitbart, who first published details of Broussard's story on BigGovernment.com, shared her identity with ABC News."
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David Weigel is a Slate political reporter. You can reach him at daveweigel@gmail.com, or tweet at him @daveweigel.
Photograph of Anthony Weiner by Andrew Burton/Getty Images.