Thursday was Anthony D. Weiner’s last day as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 9th congressional district. The former Congressman issued his resignation from the same senior center in Brooklyn that once saw him announce his successful 1991 run for City Council.
Just last month Weiner was being thought of as NYC’s next mayor, but his misuse of social media has rendered uncertain his once bright political future. It all started when his political opponents, keeping a very close eye on his Twitter account, noticed that Weiner had sent an indecorous photo of his lower half to a Washington State undergrad. It turned out he had tweeted the photo publicly when he had meant to send it as a private message — a case of Twitter sexting gone very bad. Although Weiner initially claimed his account had been hacked, he was all too soon offering public repentances for the photo and for many more such incidences.
Mr. Weiner joined Twitter in 2009 and in March of this year, Time Magazine praised him for being “able to upload pictures,” having an “actual understanding of hashtags,” and not being “afraid to make fun of himself,” adding, “I mean, just check out his profile picture.” It would only be a few months before Time added the following notice to its feature:
Update: On June 16, Weiner resigned his Congressional seat, ten days after admitting that he’d accidentally Tweeted out at least one lewd photograph of himself. So… perhaps we overstated his savvy just a bit.
Some consolations for the former congressman include TV job offers from the “Entourage” production team and a “20 percent increase over his congressman’s salary” if he joins Flynt Management Group, whose top boss, Larry Flynt, just told the Huffington Post: “I feel that [Weiner’s] unfortunate resignation is a prime example of unfounded political pressure and the hypocrisy that has invaded democracy in Washington D.C.”
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http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2058946_2059021_2059018,00.html