Weiner Requests Leave Of Absence; Top Democrats Call For Resignation

WASHINGTON -- House Democratic leadership issued a deafening rebuke of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) midday Saturday, calling on the embattled New York Democrat to resign from his post amid growing controversy over his lewd online activity.
In successive statements, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged Weiner to conduct his rehabilitation outside the confines of public office. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) the ranking member of the Budget Committee and former DCCC head, followed with the same request 45 minutes later.
“Congressman Weiner has the love of his family, the confidence of his constituents, and the recognition that he needs help," said Pelosi, whose word carries the most weight of the group. "I urge Congressman Weiner to seek that help without the pressures of being a Member of Congress.”
Shortly after the calls for resignation were delivered, reports emerged that Weiner was, indeed, checking into a treatment center -- though where and for what precisely (depression? addiction?) wasn't immediately clear.
Weiner's office put out a statement confirming those reports and announcing that he had requested a "short leave of absence from the House of Representatives so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make himself well."
Earlier reports suggested that Weiner had no immediate intention of resigning. "Congressman Weiner takes the views of his colleagues very seriously and has determined that he needs this time to get healthy and make the best decision possible for himself, his family and his constituents," the statement from his office continued.
The latest chapter in an increasingly lurid saga came as Weiner had been declining private and, occasionally, public pleas for him to step down. The congressman's defenders noted that his lewd interactions over Twitter and Facebook -- while personally embarrassing -– neither constituted a breach of law nor interfered (at the time) with his ability to conduct his job.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/debbie-wasserman-schultz-anthony-weiner_n_875402.html

You can’t fix stupid!  Go ahead Anthony.  Take your Leave of Absence.  Seek treatment.  It is all a show and we are not idiots.  It’s smart to let the press calm down and to allow time for the hype to go away.  Don’t insult us with the nonsense that you are some kind of a sex addict and you need treatment.  You are a fool and you let the wrong body-part do your thinking for you. It is what it is.  Just take your leave and go to an island somewhere in a location where you will not have cell-phone or internet access.  Remember what I always say; “if you can’t tweet, you can’t cheat!”