Weiner's Survival Strategy

Rep. Anthony Weiner is biting the bullet, not the dust.

The scandal-tarred New York Democrat is standing his ground, defying calls from colleagues to resign and vowing to continue representing his Brooklyn and Queens district to the best of his ability.

He can’t be forced from his post, and he won’t give it up simply to bring comfort to his colleagues and party leaders.

“I’m not,” he told the New York Post Thursday when asked if he was resigning. “Look I’ve betrayed a lot of people and I know it and I’m trying to get back to work now and, you know,try to make amends to my constituents and of course to my family of course.”

So, Weiner — at least at this point — seems intent on riding out the full force of a sex scandal that exposed his private sexual conversations and images of his private parts to the world.

It’s more basic survival tack than grand strategy, a decision, applauded in some corners, to stand and fight for what had been a promising political career and prove that the measure of him is more than the lewd photographs and messages he sent to six women over three years.

“The fact that some inside-the-Beltway folks are saying he should go isn’t that relevant to Anthony’s view of his long-term ability to continue to serve in New York,” said a New York political insider who noted that scrapping has been a hallmark of Weiner’s political career from the time he first took a seat on the city council at 27 to his victory in a contested 1998 primary for the seat he now holds, to his unflinching advocacy for the “public option” in last year’s health care overhaul.

Even as some prominent Democrats call for him to step aside, Weiner can take comfort in a reservoir of support that is deeper than might have been expected. For starters, his wife, Huma Abedin, is said to be encouraging him to stay in office. A Marist University poll for New York’s Channel One showed a majority of New Yorkers — 51 percent — believe he shouldn’t give up his seat, with a much smaller percentage favoring resignation. And his liberal defenders are beginning to come to the fore on cable television and in Internet blogs.

The standard being applied to Weiner, who has not been accused of abusing his office or even having a physical affair with any of the women, is different than for others, they argue.

“If you’re going to call for Anthony Weiner to resign, let me see your hard drives,” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, a former Democratic aide, said Wednesday night.

“Democrats are willing to let one of their strongest voices on Capitol Hill be silenced over what amounts to silly-stuff,” Brooklyn blogger Rock Hackshaw wrote. “Even with his warts and his semi-kinky self, Anthony Weiner is more effective than most electeds. Republicans want to still this man’s voice because they know how effective he is. Democrats who want him gone are just stupid, hypocritical, contradictory or player-hating.”

Several of Weiner’s House Democratic colleagues and two former party chairmen — Tim Kaine and Ed Rendell — have said he should resign, but party leaders have taken a much more measured approach. While some would like him to disappear of his own volition, they won’t say that publicly. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging the ethics committee to investigate whether he broke any of the institution’s rules. But that could be a lengthy process, and it’s almost unthinkable that the House would vote to expel him even if he did commit infractions associated with the scandal.

Short of that, Weiner can stay put at least until the next election in November 2012.

New York political insiders say that the scandal may make it easier to slice apart his district when the state’s political map is redrawn for that campaign, depriving him of a base from which to seek re-election. But that carries the risk for colleagues that he could run against one of them in a primary. And there are few lawmakers who can match Weiner’s energy on the campaign trail.

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