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It’s a hard image to forget.
The sordid snapshot — which takes Anthony Weiner from boxer briefs to the full Monty — sparked a feeding frenzy among tweeters, bloggers and cybersurfers across the globe yesterday.
And the randy rep. later admitted it was only one of many X-rated images he transmitted.
It was leaked by radio hosts Opie and Anthony after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart gave them a sneak peek at it. The shock jocks immediately plastered the phallic photo online, touching off an Internet firestorm.
Its emergence sparked the strongest push yet for the pervy pol to call it a career, with many top Democrats looking to take Weiner to the woodshed.
“Having the respect of your constituents is fundamental for a member of Congress,” Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a key member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Politico.com.
She urged him to resign because of his “offensive behavior.”
The devastating photo — allegedly obtained from a woman Weiner corresponded with online — surfaced yesterday during Breitbart’s morning appearance on Sirius XM’s “Opie & Anthony” show.
Breitbart, who had published other suggestive Weiner photos, had already warned that he was hanging on to one more snapshot “of an X-rated nature.”
He called it an insurance policy, but said Tuesday, “I don’t think I want to put his family through that type of thing.”
That all fell apart during the radio show, when co-host Gregg “Opie” Hughes convinced Breitbart to pass around the shot on his iPhone, and secretly took a picture of it.
“We prodded him to see the ‘pic’ that was rumored to be out there. He finally passed his phone around to show a pic of repweiner’s — well — ‘weiner,” ‘ Hughes tweeted later on his Twitter account.
Breitbart told Fox News he was “mortified” at the turn of events.
“This is a complete breach of our arrangement that the photo would not be made public,” Breitbart said. “It was a complete violation of trust.”
He said the show’s co-host, Anthony Cumia, would issue a statement saying he is “horrified” by the development. Instead, Cumia tweeted, “I’m horrified by the PENIS.”
Also horrified were Democrats from coast to coast.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine quickly broke ranks with Weiner, citing the congressman’s trashed credibility.
“Lying is unforgivable. Lying publicly about something like this is unforgivable, and he should resign,” Kaine said. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) also signaled that it was time for Weiner to leave.
“Ultimately that’s up to him and his constituents and his family, but I think at this point it would probably be a good thing if he would go ahead and resign,” Pryor said in Little Rock.
Similar sentiments came from Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine). “I am hoping that the congressman will do what’s right for his family, and probably the best decision would be to step down.”
But the leader of their party, President Obama, was staying as far from Weinergate as possible.
Asked about the demands for Weiner’s resignation, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “We have no comment on that story.”
The strongest words from the Democratic establishment came from former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell — who indicated it was time for Weiner not only to quit, but to see a shrink.
“He should resign and get treatment, real treatment,” said Rendell, who headed the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration.
Weiner didn’t get much support at a fund-raiser last night in Astoria for fellow Congressman Joe Crowley, who also is the Queens Democratic leader. One elected official said the timing of the news that Weiner’s wife is pregnant seemed designed to counter the calls for his resignation.
“I assume it was leaked for that purpose,” said the official.
Another longtime elected official wondered why Weiner was still in office.
“This has to be resolved quickly,” said that official. “I can’t believe it’s gone on this long.”
Crowley, who described himself as a “friend” of Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, said he couldn’t predict whether Weiner would be around to run for re-election.
“I’m not a mind reader,” said Crowley, “nor am I a fortune teller. I don’t know.”
Weiner has said nothing publicly since his latest vow not to resign, which he made Tuesday outside his Forest Hills home.
His contrite silence is a far cry from his carefree chats with porn star Ginger Lee in the days after the scandal broke.
“BTW, I’m sponsoring a line of twitpic undies,” he wrote Lee as he coached her on how to make the scandal go away. “I need a name.”
“I want twitpic ready undies,” she wrote back, according to TMZ.com. “Hook a bitch up. I never get cool s- – -t. Just sayin.’ ”
Last night, reports of still another on-line flirtation surfaced. It was revealed that Weiner had communicated via Facebook with Traci Nobles, a 35-year-old physical-education from Athens, Ga. The Las Vegas Sun reported that she called him “sexy” and he called her “sugar” during an August exchange. But with all his problems, Weiner has managed to hang on to some supporters.
A source close to Weiner said, “He’s actually getting calls in his district offices saying stay and fight.”
Additional reporting
by David Seifman and the AP