10 days later . . .

WASHINGTON-America's citizens could only wish that the latest congressional scandal was over as quickly as the one this past winter.

In February, the online gossip website Gawker posted shirtless photos of Rep. Chris Lee, R-N.Y., photos he had apparently sent a 34-year-old woman he met on Craigslist. Three hours later, Lee resigned, saying the issue would be a "distraction" from his congressional work. He publicly apologized to his wife for "profound mistakes" and then faded from public view.

For 10 days, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., lied and tried to dodge scandal. On May 28, he posted a photo of himself in his underwear on his Twitter account, a tweet directed to a 21-year-old woman, someone he didn't know, he said. When he realized that he had posted it on his public Twitter account, not in a private direct message, he said he "panicked" and quickly deleted the tweet, but not before others had seen it. Weiner initially denied, repeatedly, that he sent the tweet, saying his account had been hacked. Then reporters asked if the picture was of him, and he waffled, saying he couldn't be sure. He mocked reporters for pursuing the story, even making a coarse joke about it to a female reporter for The Washington Times. Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart threatened to release a sexually explicit photo of the congressman that had been leaked to him.

Then on Monday, Weiner called a bizarrely long, tearful press conference in New York, where he confessed that he had sent the picture as well as interacted with six women online in "inappropriate" ways over the last three years, including since he got married to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, last summer. The announcement derailed all other news that evening.

Weiner said he would not resign, saving that decision for his voters in the next election. Explaining the lies, he said, "I was trying to protect my wife. I was trying to protect myself from a sense of shame." He said he never "had sex outside my marriage" and that he and his wife plan to stay together. The confession was reminiscent of another bizarre, tearful press conference in 2009, when then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford announced that he had committed adultery. Sanford didn't resign but didn't run for office again. Upon hearing the news about Weiner, Jenny Sanford, former wife of Mark Sanford, told Politico, "I think it's another sad example of ego gone wild."

The latest scandal may continue to consume airwaves and news headlines because Weiner has refused to resign, and congressional Democrats have called for the House to conduct an ethics investigation, which could become very drawn out. Former head of the Democratic National Committee Tim Kaine called for Weiner to resign, saying, "Lying is unforgivable." Top Republicans-though notably, not House Speaker John Boehner, so far-have called for Weiner's resignation.

Weiner has been one of the prominent public faces of the Democrats on Capitol Hill, though he is sometimes a loud loner. He was at one time a frontrunner to become the next mayor of New York, and he is very close to the Clintons. President Clinton presided over Weiner's wedding last July.