If Anthony Weiner sticks to his word and hangs around, the media fury may die down. Weiner shows no signs of quitting

After two weeks of a full-fledged media frenzy and a barrage of resignation calls, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats just might be stuck with Rep. Anthony Weiner for a while.

Weiner is giving no sign that he is ready to step down despite public demands from some of his colleagues to do so and private pressure from Democratic leaders. Weiner, in fact, is trying to move on by adopting a business-as-usual attitude with the press and his critics, both in and out of the Democratic Party.


“I’m not,” the 46-year-old Weiner defiantly told the New York Post on Thursday when asked whether he would resign. “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.”

He could quickly change his mind and quit in a New York minute, but if he sticks to his word and hangs around, the media fury may die down, and he’ll try to go about his day job representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Riding it out seems to be part of his survival strategy.

But his presence may be uncomfortable for Democrats, who will have to see Weiner in the hallways of the Capitol next week for the first time since he admitted sending lewd pictures to women he met online. It remains to be seen whether his colleagues will keep their distance on the House floor and in committee hearings, but it is clear that the party wants to try to get back on message.

“The House Democrats want to focus on Medicare and want to focus on issues, and to the extent this distracts the press and the public from the issues that Democrats want to talk about, that’s a problem,” said former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas). “If this were to drag on for months and months and the Ethics Committee were to come in with a find that he violated House rules, clearly that would be a problem for the party.”

Several sources said an emotional Weiner was calling selected Democratic colleagues, telling them he will fight it out and wasn’t going to resign, citing citywide polling data released this week. He also claimed his wife, Huma Abedin — who is pregnant with the couple’s first child — wants him to stay on.

Weiner has also complained to friends that he wasn’t sure how he would make a living if he were to leave Congress and its $174,000 annual salary. “He’s worried about money and how to pay his bills,” said a Democratic insider. “He’s very concerned about that.”

If public polls are any indication, there is a chance Weiner could survive this crisis. A Marist survey released Thursday night showed 56 percent of Weiner’s constituents don’t want him to resign, against 33 percent who do. Nearly three-quarters of those polled believe Weiner did “something unethical but not illegal.”

“At the moment, it looks like a really stupid thing for a public official to have done,” added a House Democrat who has spoken to Weiner. “But I don’t think there should be resignations for stupidity. … What we’re talking now is morality. Everybody has different lines on what’s moral and what’s not.”

House Democratic leaders, who have hammered Republicans for their lawmakers’ misbehavior and leadership’s inaction, have been almost completely closemouthed about Weiner in public, despite private efforts to oust him.

Pelosi called for an ethics investigation to find out whether Weiner used government resources, but her office refused to say whether he should resign. The same goes for Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, also of New York.

Israel has spoken with Weiner directly several times this week to no avail, according to Democratic insiders. Emissaries sent by the leadership to dislodge Weiner have had no impact. CNN reported that one of those Democrats, New York Rep. Nita Lowey, told Weiner she was “very disappointed in him” and said “his behavior was inexcusable” in a phone conversation. Lowey attended Weiner’s wedding last summer.

Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina ducked the issue, saying “I’ll leave it up to” whether he should stay or go. Clyburn, though, did suggest the House Democratic Caucus may weigh in on the issue.

“Leader Pelosi was right to call for an investigation into this matter, and it ought to proceed in as timely a fashion as possible,” Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) said.

Weiner is also getting support from liberal commentators and activists, most of whom don’t like what he’s done but refuse to condemn him for it. And they’re also upset as what they see as a mainstream media campaign to destroy one of their most aggressive spokesmen.

“When Americans go to sleep at night suffocating in sick dread, it’s far more likely to be about a job or bills than it is about some politician’s prank tweets,” said Darcy Burner, president of ProgressiveCongress.org, in a statement to POLITICO. “D.C. is full of people who have completely lost touch with the people they’re supposed to be representing. Progressives, on the other hand, have not forgotten. We’re taking members of Congress all over the country this summer so that they can hear from American workers and focus on solving the real problems our country faces.”

Other progressives, including MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, paint Republicans as hyprocrites for calling on Weiner to resign when the GOP leadership wouldn’t do the same for Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who was caught up in prostitution scandal in 2007 when his phone number showed up on a brothel madam’s phone list.

But how Weiner will do next week — if he’s still serving in Congress — is unclear. Judging by the ever-present reporters near his apartment in the Forest Hills section of Queens, and the gaggle frequently assembled near his U Street condo in Washington, Weiner won’t get much space.

Both of his Energy and Commerce subcommittees — Health and Oversight and Investigations — have hearings next week, and the media are expected to follow Weiner everywhere.

Furthermore, the House comes into session Monday evening and is not expected to leave until Thursday, giving reporters ample opportunity to waylay Weiner.

Jonathan Allen, Reid Epstein and Maggie Haberman contributed to this report.