Gennette Cordova, the Seattle college student who managed to maintain her dignity despite being dragged into the last Weinergate scandal, is taking the high road again in Weinergate 2.0
In 2011, she was as surprised as anyone when New York Democatic Rep. Anthony Weiner tweeted his infamous underwear pic to her, leading to his resignation from Congress; she bowed out gracefully before shutting down her Twitter account and walking away from the media and the story.
Today, with a new account, Cordova, 24, is quietly tweeting her surprise at Weiner’s serial stupidity after he sent ever more revealing messages and photos to another woman – leading to yet another press confessional last week. This time, he admits to continuing his sexting ways under the dastardly pseudonym of “Carlos Danger,” despite his earlier claims of kicking the heavy breathing habit.
Unlike Cordova, Weiner’s latest target, a 22-year-old woman named Sidney Leathers no less, broke, then stoked, the scandal. She leapt into the limelight after disclosing the sordid back story, complete with texting transcripts. In TV interviews, Leathers said Weiner told her he loved her and sought her advice on running for mayor. On the radio, she agreed with Howard Stern that Weiner was “one sick puppy.” She talked about his foot fetish and shower fantasies. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, the Hillary Clinton aide, stood by her man, again.
Though Cordova’s occasionally critical of the media, she tweets mostly about music, news, animals, friends and family. She doesn’t respond on Twitter to media inquiries, but may have been referring to reporters when she tweeted last week, just after the new Weiner scandal broke: “Aaaand, here come the inbox vultures.”
But Cordova did take time the other day to publicly wonder which head Weiner was thinking with when he hooked up with Leathers, leaving a trail of hard evidence, before announcing his candidacy for mayor of New York City – where Cordova is currently living.
“The stupid part,” she typed, “was believing a 22-year-old can be strung along for six months, abandoned & trusted to keep quiet.”
Her disgust was apparent in another tweet: Leathers had launched the lusty scandal by tipping off the Nik Richie website, The Dirty, a week ago, detailing Weiner’s horny urges during their six-month electronic relationship.
“Sexual impropriety is forgivable,” Cordova wrote. “Inadvertently boosting the credibility of Breitbart (RIP) & that piece of shit, Nik Richie, isn’t.”
Though he folded under pressure in 2011, Weiner has resisted calls to drop from the NY mayoral race, despite the resignation of his campaign manager and polls showing him dropping from the lead to dead last. He has become increasingly combative with reporters and potential voters. It’s a campaign on the verge of premature ejaculation: After a former election worker wrote a tell-all piece for the NY Daily News, Weiner’s communications director called her a slut and a “stupid fucking intern.”
Leathers, meanwhile, is discovering the consequences of 15 minutes of infamy: her own exposure. As The Daily Mail of London describes her life, she’s a high school-dropout with a drug record and desperate for fame (such as posting for a bikini shoot); she’s also being sought by creditors and has “fled” her Indiana home.
But the paper made the mistake of comparing Leathers with Cordova, referring to the former Seattle student as “another of the disgraced politician’s young sexters.”
Cordova moved quick for a correction. “I emailed a journalist this morning,” she tweeted last Friday, “who inaccurately referred to me as a ‘sexter’ in an article…& then…he changed it. I’m in shock.”
Earlier last month, she was able to joke about her role in toppling Weiner. As she tweeted July 8 to someone who hadn’t been answering her messages: “Are you not responding to me because the last famous person who talked to me on Twitter had to resign from Congress?”
But then, that was before Anthony Weiner lived down to his name again.
