June 11, 2011 in News

Embattled congressman decides to seek treatment

Associated Press

Associated Press photo

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., carries his laundry to a laundromat near his home in the Queens borough of New York, Saturday, June 11, 2011. The 46-year-old congressman acknowledged Friday that he had online contact with a 17-year-old girl from Delaware but said there was nothing inappropriate.
(Full-size photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fierce pressure from fellow Democrats to resign in a sexting scandal, Rep. Anthony Weiner announced Saturday he was entering professional treatment at an undisclosed location and requested a leave of absence from Congress.

An aide for the embattled New York lawmaker made the disclosure in a statement shortly after several Democratic party leaders demanded he quit for exchanging messages and photos ranging from sexually suggestive to explicit with several women online.

“This sordid affair has become an unacceptable distraction for Representative Weiner, his family, his constituents and the House,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party chairwoman, said in a written statement calling for the 46-year-old married lawmaker to step down.

The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said Weiner “has the love of his family, the confidence of his constituents and the recognition that he needs help. I urge Congressman Weiner to seek that help without the pressures of being a member of Congress.”

Weiner’s spokeswoman, Risa Heller, said in the statement that the congressman departed during the morning “to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person. In light of that, he will request a short leave of absence from the House of Representatives so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make himself well.”

The statement did not say where he would receive treatment, or what type was involved. Others familiar with his plans said he had left New York by air.

Also joining in calls for Weiner to quit was Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a member of the party’s leadership.

In an interview, Israel said he had told Weiner in a phone call during the day “that I was going to call on him to resign and he absorbed that. Obviously he had much more personal and pressing issues that he was addressing.

“He didn’t give me any indication of whether he was going to resign or not,” Israel said.

Pelosi also spoke with Weiner during the day to let him know that she, too, would be joining the calls for resignation.

The developments occurred one day after Weiner acknowledged he had exchanged online messages with a 17-year-old girl in Delaware. He said nothing improper had passed between the two of them.

Nor was there even an allegation that Weiner had a physical relationship with any of the women with whom he maintained virtual relationships. That made his case a departure from the norm, a sex scandal without sex, a phenomenon of the age of Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

Democrats said the concerted call for a resignation had been brewing for days, as senior party officials concluded the scandal was interfering with their attempts to gain political momentum in advance of the 2012 elections.

“We had decided we were not going to have one more week of Anthony Weinergate,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

This official added that Pelosi and Israel had spoken numerous times in the past several days with Weiner, hoping to persuade him to step down for the good of the party, telling him that because of the media focus on his predicament, their attacks on a Republican Medicare proposal were largely unnoticed.

Publicly, Pelosi, Wasserman Schultz and others had been notably reticent in the days since Weiner held a news conference on Monday to announce he had exchanged lewd photos, and more, with a handful of women.

On Thursday, an X-rated photo surfaced on a website, and in response, Weiner’s office issued a statement that did not deny it had been taken of him.

The Democratic National Committee was so eager to downplay the controversy that earlier in the week, spokesman Brad Woodhouse referred calls to Wasserman Schultz’ House office, saying Weiner’s predicament was a congressional matter.

Her statement demanding a resignation, five days later, was issued by the DNC.

The White House declined comment on the matter, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, his state’s dominant Democrat, maintained a public silence after an initial statement issued on Monday.

The statement by Weiner’s aide did not specify how long a leave of absence the congressman would seek. According to one Democratic aide, leaves are granted automatically once a lawmaker requests one, and no vote or other type of acquiescence by the House is required. It is not known whether any other lawmakers are currently on leave.

Until disclosing he was seeking treatment, Weiner had given no indication he was considering anything other than returning to the Capitol on Monday when the House returns from a week-long break — raising the prospect of a circus-like atmosphere when the news media attempted to track his whereabouts.

He ran some personal errands near his home in Queens during the morning, and said he was looking forward to getting back to work quickly.

“I’ve made some mistakes. I’ve acknowledged it. I’m trying to make it up to my wife and my family,” he said. “I’m working hard to get back to normal.”

As he walked to a neighborhood dry cleaner with a load of shirts over one arm he wore an anguished look on his face, but fielded questions politely and paused several times to accept well wishes from neighbors and constituents.

Asked how his wife was taking the scandal, Weiner said, “She’s doing well. She’s a remarkable woman.”

Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Abedin, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, is traveling with Clinton in Africa until the middle of next week.

She was not in attendance on Monday when Weiner held his news conference, choosing to avoid the stand-by-your-man-moment that has become standard in other sex scandals in recent years.

Before Saturday’s developments, at least nine Democratic House members and three senators said Weiner should resign.

17 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

hawken on June 11 at 2:42 p.m.
Treatment is good for his sake, the sake of his wife and the sake of his unborn child.
Treatment only underlines his pathological sickness.
Treatment does not justify the American people trusting this lunatic another day in office.
gmorton on June 11 at 3:35 p.m.
Treatment?
Ha!
“Give me a pill lest I sin again!”
There is no “treatment” for stupidity.
oneanddone on June 11 at 3:54 p.m.
This guy exemplifies how politicians react to life - both sides of the isle. They do whatever they want, living by the creed of “If it feels good, do it” … until they get caught. Then they cry that it’s an illness and not their fault. There is no absolute morality for these kind of people, only what they can get away with. There is no absolute truth for these people, only opinion. Congress is rife with scum like this and it doesn’t stop there. It goes to those in state legislatures and city councils. These SOBs think that since they can make law they are exempt from them all. The only solution is to get rid of every one, starting with the likes of Otter, Luna, Goedde, Hart, Nonini …
nslopeofw on June 11 at 4:03 p.m.
Same as celebs. Cant control themselves, so its not their own fault.
Take responsibility, resign, and beg your wife to forgive you. What a kosher wiener.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on June 11 at 4:20 p.m.
Amazing how much more coverage this gets than the Vitter hooker scandal did. Love how people say the media is liberal, yet look who owns all the news media, giant corporations that for the most part donate to republicans. So, I guess we can say this story is being blown out of proportion due to the typical conservative media bias.
I still say he should only resign when David Vitter resigns from actually doing something illegal and lying about it.
hawken on June 11 at 5:01 p.m.
Liberal…. that’s juvenile logic.
My kid was punched in the eye by a bully at school.
Therefore, that justifies my kid, becoming a bully, punching some other kid in the eye at school.
One act of stupidity justifies the next and the next and the next, act of stupidity.
That, my friend, is stupidity.
Each bully needs to be punished based upon his own bad behavior. Republican and Democrat alike.
Republicans pressure their own bullies to resign. Democrats do not.
In the end, neither party can “force” a member to resign.
Nevertheless, that Republicans pressure their own bullies to resign and that Democrats do not, is well established by the public record..
polistra on June 11 at 5:29 p.m.
The House can expel a member, but it’s only happened twice since the Civil War: Myers in 1980 in connection with Abscam, and Traficant in 2002. Both of those were already convicted of bribery; Traficant was already in jail and tried to continue serving.
Weiner isn’t anywhere near that level of seriousness, so the worst he’d likely receive is censure. Still, when all the bosses of your own Party are telling you to get the hell out, it’s really stupid to hang around.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on June 11 at 5:54 p.m.
Hawken, do you even believe what you write? Who have the republicans pushed out? Larry Craig was allowed to stay until the end of his term, Newt stayed in office through two of his affairs. Even John Esign stayed in office for 2 years after his scandal broke. The South Carolina governor stayed in office. Even my favorite hypocrite of them all David Vitter stayed in office.
The ONLY one who left office was Chris Lee and that was because it was about to come out he was looking for transsexuals on craigslist. And Mark Foley who left in shame because he was trying to have sex with underage boy pages on capital hill.
Who is this that you speak of that the republican have forced out of office for their sex scandal? Who is this mythical figure?
normsy on June 11 at 6:04 p.m.
Hawken,
Republicans don’t do that much pressuring. See Ensign, Craig, Vitter.
And, democrats are pressuring Weiner to resign, the House minority leader, former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has, as has Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
chefxh on June 11 at 6:54 p.m.
Oh, just GO, already!
Providing_Buttonholes on June 11 at 7:23 p.m.
I would wager we the tax payers are going to pay his treatment bill, where as a good old castration will solve his problems.
de3 on June 11 at 7:38 p.m.
Congress itself is nothing but scum and self dealing narcissists. Throw them all out. I’ve given up giving any of them the benefit of doubt.
Diana on June 11 at 8:28 p.m.
Let the voters decide.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on June 11 at 8:38 p.m.
I don’t quite understand how his acknowledging that he has a problem and deciding “to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person” equals avoiding responsibility. Is it just me, or does that actually kind of look like accepting responsibility?
If the House leadership has the actual power to expel him over this, they they should go ahead & do it. If they don’t have that actual power, it would be more productive of them to shut up – especially now that they’ve been seen expressing their disapproval in public so nobody can accuse them of “condoning” or “turning a blind eye.”
If his own constituents are unhappy with him, now or in the future, they can let him know via referendum or the 2012 election.
EdubU on June 11 at 9:09 p.m.
Again, if you are going to have sexual relations, at least have sexual relations where you actually have body to body sex, you know; like republicans have done.
DHF on June 12 at 5:38 a.m.
After working with sexual psychopaths for many years I know of no treatment for these types of obsessions and compulsion’s. You would have to re wire his brain as there is a normalcy short circuit. He is a degenerate
misjustice on June 12 at 8:02 a.m.
I didn’t know there was a “treatment center” for stoopid…what Weiner did was stoopid, not illegal. And NOTHING that he does will appease the right wing nut jobs. This “scandal” was a take down aimed at a powerful voice on the left. Admit it, Weiner’s speech on the floor, over health care reform, is what this is all about; not pics of his man parts.
If the right wing nut jobs had been as outraged over diaper boy Vitter, as they are about Weiner’s sexting, then maybe I’d believe them; but they weren’t, so I don’t.