The odds against Weiner are long. He is well known to cable-television audiences as the Democrats' most vicious attack dog. And inside Congress he is recognized for his mouth, not his muscle. Colleagues paint him as someone who does little of the political heavy lifting, but is always there to bask in the glory.
The late Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy survived a career full of sexual improprieties in large part because he was an insider's insider. Kennedy was a workhorse who got things done and made things happen.
Weiner seems to have perpetrated the first virtual political sex scandal. There is the appearance of impropriety, but no sex. And so it is with his congressional career: more flash than substance.
House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi's call for an ethics investigation is pro forma. But those things take months to bear fruit.
Far more dangerous to Weiner is the rumored photo of him naked. If one exists, it is only a matter of time before a tabloid buys it and puts it online.
Weiner is fast becoming toxic to the Democratic Party. That former president Bill Clinton officiated at Weiner's wedding last year must have the Republican smear masters foaming at the moth.
Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, is a protégé of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and has not been standing by her man — at least not in public. Odds are that if she does not leave him, Weiner might have a chance of salvaging something.
If Abedin cuts him loose, then Weiner is dead meat.
