Several Dems call for Weiner to resign

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Embattled New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s prospects for political survival dimmed precipitously Wednesday with the appearance on the Internet of an X-rated photo said to be of the congressman — and the first calls from fellow Democrats for him to step down.

“In light of Anthony Weiner’s offensive behavior online, he should resign,” Pennsylvania Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a member of the party campaign committee’s leadership, said in a statement that was followed quickly by similar expressions from other Democrats.

Separately, as the political scandal increasingly roiled the Democratic Party, several officials said that Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was pregnant. An official at the State Department, where Abedin serves as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, had no comment.

Weiner, 46, has admitted sending explicit photos and messages via the Internet to about a half-dozen women over the past three years. He vowed at a news conference Monday to remain in office, and one lawmaker who spoke to him Wednesday said Weiner indicated he still hopes to remain in Congress. That lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity, saying it was a private conversation.

But the appearance of a photo of a man’s genitals added yet another aspect to what appears to be a sex scandal without actual sex in the age of social media. According to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, Weiner sent the picture of himself to one of the women with whom he corresponded online.