PETER SAGAL, HOST:
We want to remind everybody they can join us here most weeks at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago. For tickets and more information, go to wbez.org, and you can find a link at our website waitwait.npr.org. Right now, panel, this being our special year in review show, it is time for you to answer some questions about the year in review. It works that way.
Paula, one of the big stories of this last year, social media in all its forms. It helped change regimes. It brought democracy to parts of the Middle East. In addition, Congressman Anthony Weiner used social media to bring down a leader here in the US. Who was it?
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Himself.
SAGAL: Yes, of course.
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SAGAL: Now, when conservative activists first accused Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner of tweeting pictures of his crotch to women across the country, everybody was like "no way, nobody is that stupid, not even a congressman."
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SAGAL: But then he started to deny it and that's how we knew he was guilty. He said he couldn't say, quote, "with certitude" if the picture was of him or not. Really? He had so many pictures of his crotch one could have somehow gotten away from him?
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SAGAL: Maybe he had meant to send it to his doctor with the message, "Okay, it's been four hours; it's time to get you involved."
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POUNDSTONE: What are the odds of it being a guy named Weiner too?
SAGAL: It's true.
POUNDSTONE: I mean that's just...
SAGAL: It's the first time that we know in the history of scandals that a congressman's name actually held the answer to what would bring him down.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah, you know why?
SAGAL: Why?
POUNDSTONE: Because nobody votes for Mayor Stupidhead.
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SAGAL: Right. I don't see a bright future for Representative Bob She-said-she-was-18 of Maryland.
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