A week after the tweet heard ’round the political world went out from his Twitter account, Rep. Anthony Weiner refuses to resolve what he still insists is the mystery about who’s responsible.
Congress needs to take the matter out of his hands.
Under House rules, Weiner is obligated to report “any unauthorized access or unusual system activities” — e.g., the hacking he says occurred — to the House Information Resources Security Office, which “will investigate any breaches of the Internet security system.”
But, so far, the only cops to be called were summoned yesterday by Weiner’s staff — to evict a New York television reporter from the congressman’s office.
Question: Is Weiner’s Twitter feed connected in any way to the House’s online system?
Shouldn’t make any difference: He’s a member of Congress, and the HIR Security Office needs to get involved.
It sure did a year ago, when the Web sites of 49 House members — all managed by a private vendor — were hacked following President Obama’s State of the Union address during a brief maintenance update.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is spot-on when he demands that Weiner — who yesterday decided to dummy up and not answer any more questions — “come clean.”
“There’s been a lot of explaining, without a lot of clarity,” noted Cantor.
The most jaw-dropping part of this whole sordid mess continues to be Weiner’s repeated refusal to say whether or not the celebrated shot is of his crotch.
Indeed, appearing on Democrat-friendly MSNBC, he suggested that “maybe it started out being a photograph of mine” but “was taken out of context.”
No kidding.
So why wouldn’t he be eager to end this whole matter — as he claims he is — by bringing in federal investigators, who can determine the truth so easily?
Well, as CBS News legal analyst Jack Ford notes, “it’s not against the law to lie to the media. It’s not against the law to lie to your constituents. [But] it is against the law to lie to law enforcement.”
Which may explain why Anthony Weiner is going the stonewall route.
For her part, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi expressed her “confidence in Anthony Weiner that if an investigation is in order, that will take place.”
Color us unconvinced: An investigation is in order — and Congress shouldn’t wait for Anthony Weiner’s permission before launching one.