The furious mom of the Seattle college coed at the center of Weinergate yesterday demanded that the cocky congressman come clean about the lewd photo.
“I’m really upset. I feel like he’s a person of power and influence, who can make a statement and make all this go away,” Carol Mizuguchi said, blasting Rep. Anthony Weiner for his continued snarky sidestepping.
“As her mother, I’m really upset,” Mizuguchi told The Post. “I’m pissed off at that.”
Mizuguchi’s 21-year-old daughter, Gennette Cordova, got the surprise package — a close-up of an underwear-clad crotch — over the weekend in a tweet from Weiner’s account.
After days of dodging, Weiner yesterday admitted he “can’t say with certitude” that the photo isn’t of him.
But he continued to deny he sent the picture.
The pol’s refusal to clarify things has made a bad situation more difficult for her daughter, Mizuguchi said.
“It’s a distraction [for Gennette],” she said. “It’s during her finals and she’s 21 years old.”
The aspiring journalist even dropped one of her classes in the wake of the scandal, according to a faculty adviser.
“She’s just trying to have a normal life,” Cordova’s mom said.
Weiner first claimed his Twitter account was hacked, which is a federal crime. He later backed off and referred to the incident as “a prank.”
Cordova is one of 198 people, many of them pretty young women, that Weiner follows on Twitter.
She has said she is a fan of Weiner’s but has never personally met the pol.
“It’s a terrible thing that this poor woman got dragged into it,” Weiner said yesterday on MSNBC.
But Weiner hardly oozed sympathy for Cordova, and almost seemed to cast doubt on her role in the drama while clearly concerned with his own damage control.
“She says she knows nothing about it,” Weiner said of Cordova.
“And I obviously don’t know anything about it.”
Sheltered by her close-knit family and friends, Cordova has kept a low profile since the scandal broke.
She initially pulled down her Twitter and Facebook accounts but has since returned to Twitter. Yesterday, she tweeted her thanks to several well-wishers.
She also vented her frustration, noting, “If u recede from the public, you’re accused of hiding something. If u face down your accusers, you’re accused of being an attention whore.”
In an e-mail to The Post, Cordova said the controversy has taken its toll.
“It’s only getting worse with the stress,” she wrote.
Cordova’s mom said she’s worried about her daughter.
“I just spoke to her,” Mizuguchi said.
“She said sarcastically, ‘I’m just great, mom. I feel wonderful.’ “