Bring Your Questions For New York Congressman Anthony Weiner

Anthony Weiner

There was a fleeting moment in the 2008 presidential race when it looked like three New Yorkers might be on the ballot against one another. Alas, not a single one of them made it past the primaries — but there is still an awful lot of New York City in Washington these days.
One of those candidates is now Secretary of State; and the Obama administration has been recruiting New Yorkers at a frenzied pace: Thomas Frieden to the Centers for Disease Control*; Rocco Landesman to the National Endowment for the Arts; Shaun Donovan to Housing and Urban Development; Peggy Hamburg to the Food and Drug Administration; and, oh yes, Tim Geithner to Treasury.
But few New Yorkers bring more of a New York attitude to Washington than Democratic Congressman Anthony David Weiner. He is the self-confessed Dorian Gray of politics, a mirror image of the 27-year-old version of himself who in 1991 became the then-youngest elected member of New York’s City Council. He was elected to Congress in 1998, taking over the seat previously occupied by his mentor Chuck Schumer, who won election to the U.S. Senate.
Weiner now sits on the Judiciary Committee and the wide-reaching Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications, public health, energy policy, environmental protection, and interstate and foreign commerce. He is also vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, which he believes should steer legislation for the nation’s cybersecurity. At a May 1 hearing, he wondered if the president should have “an on-off switch” for the Internet, or if there should be a “second tier” of the Internet for more secure operations:

He also very much wanted to run for Mayor of New York (again) this year, but probably won’t. Like many New Yorkers, he is fond of swearing. He is significantly entwined with Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Secretary of State Clinton. (If that marriage goes through, Hollywood won’t be able to resist — a Jewish/Muslim romantic-comedy version of an Albert Brooks film, maybe.) Oh yeah, Weiner also used to be a sort-of roommate to Jon Stewart, and has become Ben Affleck‘s political sage.
I ran into Weiner in an airport the other week and can testify that there is almost no question to which he won’t give a candid, informed, and fairly entertaining answer. So fire away in the comments section below. As always, we will post his answers to your questions in short course.
*Based near Atlanta; its predecessor agency was located there to fight malaria in the 1940’s.
Addendum: Weiner answers your questions here.