1. Admit Everything Before the Press Does It For You.

Before the leaks and girlfriends come out of the woodwork, spill it. Before the envelope containing salacious details makes it into the grubby hands of the media, tell everything.

This was Weiner’s first mistake. He lied when the direct message on Twitter was mistakenly sent to his entire Twitter following. If this had been the only crotch shot in the Weiner collection, it might have been an acceptable lie—“I’ve been hacked!”—but because there was a virtual library of penis and pec shots sent to a plethora of women around the world who stood to make a buck out of his shame, lying was the first mistake. If he didn’t pay them off, they would find a way to get paid via the media.

He also messed up when he said: “Last Friday night, I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended to send as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle.”

However, it is clear that the crotch shot wasn’t intended as a joke at all. Strike one.

He also claimed that he believed all the people he had sexted with were of legal age, but it subsequently came out that he had followed on Twitter and traded direct messages with a teenager who seemed pretty sexually attracted to him (and a mite bit obsessed).

Letterman knew better.