Really? If Anthony Weiner wanted to defuse this scandal, he seems to be using the gasoline-to-fight-fire strategy.  On the exact questions that call for clear and unequivocal answers, Weiner keeps backing away with vague and unresponsive statements instead  Click on the image to watch the RCP video:

NBC’s LUKE RUSSERT: “That’s not a picture of you?”

REP. ANTHONY WEINER: “You know, I can’t say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted.”

Shouldn’t this be a question where certitude is rather easily achieved?  How many pictures does Rep. Weiner take of his underwear to cause this confusion?  To “manipulate” a photo, there has to be a source photo with which to work.  If the picture was “dropped in,” then it should be easy for Weiner to say unequivocally, “I have never taken a photograph of my genitalia, with or without underwear.”  The inability to make that statement — and to tell an NBC reporter that he “can’t say with certitude” that the picture is a hoax — makes him look as though he’s hedging his bets.  Heck, he is obviously hedging his bets, and that gives a pretty strong whiff of guilt in these circumstances.

Ace has been asking great questions all along, so be sure to keep up with the story there, as well as at Big Journalism.