Anthony Weiner

Weinergate: Put a Fork in Weiner – He’s Done

U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) speaks to the media in New York, June 6, 2011. Representative Anthony Weiner admitted on Monday to sending a lewd photo of himself to a 21-year-old female college student over his Twitter account after previously denying he had done so

I think so.

It was only fitting that the circus surrounding Rep. Anthony Weiner’s admission on Monday that he had, in fact, sent lewd messages to random females over Twitter ended with a lewd question referencing a wiener.

“Were you fully erect?” an apparent plant from a shock jock radio show shouted as the New York Democrat ended a painful apology news conference in New York City’s Sheraton Hotel.

Tent pole jokes aside, the inquisitor highlighted a remarkable fact: A man regarded as one of the smartest strategists in Democratic politics and a likely 2013 New York City mayoral frontrunner had fallen from the rising star to national punch line in less than a week.

And the embarrassing scandal inevitably raised the question of whether the career of a politician — even one as skilled as many thought Weiner was — could survive it. A quick poll of New York politicos and D.C. pundits found few saying he could. But they also noted a geopolitical factor that worked to his advantage: This is New York — stranger things have happened.

“He needs to have a multi-year commitment to a comeback strategy,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic operative and oft-described crisis communications expert with experience in the Clinton White House. “I’d tell him that you have to realize it will take you multiple years to get back to the position you were in just a week ago.”

Rep. Anthony Weiner ain’t no Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton.

Put a fork in him – He’s Done.