The Human Factor

Rep. Anthony Weiner asserts that his Twitter account was hacked to send a lewd picture to a young Seattle undergraduate. The New York Post arrives today with a story that provides the salient details in mercifully abbreviated form in its “Weiner roast” cover story.
Glenn Reynolds has provided so many Weinergate updates that I’m beginning to suspect he enjoys the story, as I do, although it’s a guilty pleasure, at least in my case. One of Glenn’s Weinergate updates brings a scandalmeister’s Occam’s razor to the case: Lee Stranahan proposes the “Would your spouse buy it?” test. He thinks Weiner’s explanation fails the test rather dramatically.
Stranahan’s is not a bad test, but I have one of my own that runs slightly counter to it, if only superficially. My own interpretive key to these scandals is whether the politician has appeared in public with the demonstrative support of his wife. Weiner also fails my test. In another of Glenn’s Weinergate updates, the New York Daily News publishes a photograph of Weiner out for a walk, holding hands with his wife, Huma Abedin.
I don’t want to be rash, but that photograph is a dead giveaway. In terms of persevering in the face of the scandal, however, Weiner has something important going for him. He’s a Democrat.