Mediaite founder Dan Abrams speaks with Eliot about how the media are covering Rep. Anthony Weiner's tweet revelations.

Abrams says mainstream media were skeptical at first, and then realized that conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart was right about Weiner's transgressions.

When Eliot asks if it would have helped Weiner to have been open at first, Abrams turns the tables on Eliot and asks if it helped him. Eliot says he sympathizes with Weiner. "I know he is going through torment like no other," and that Weiner's greatest sin, in terms of the public, "was not being truthful at the moment of crisis."

Sebastian Junger, best-selling author of “War” (and “The Perfect Storm”) discusses the U.S. role in Afghanistan and the upcoming scheduled troop withdrawal.

Junger told Eliot that success in Afghanistan means that the government there–now what Junger calls a "criminal syndicate"–will display integrity and take care of its own people. The U.S. can't leave until there's a government that the Afghan people feel is worth fighting for.

Rep. Chaffetz on Weiner: ‘I don't see any option but to step down’

(CNN) -  Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Tuesday that Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, has no option but to resign from Congress.

In an interview on CNN’s “In the Arena” with Eliot Spitzer, the Utah congressman said he has a good relationshipwith Weiner - he considers Weiner a friend - but ultimately feels Weiner has to do what’s right for the American people, step down.

“I don't see any option but to step down. I like the guy. I've gotten along with him. I've sponsored bills with him.” Chaffetz continued, “This is about the trust that he has - with the American people and specifically the people in New York - but I just don't see how you can go on for this.” FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's OFF-SET questions is Daniel Ellsberg, author, defense analyst and prominent whistleblower.

He is the subject of a documentary about his life, "The Most Dangerous Man in America," nominated for a 2010 Academy Award, which took its title from the words former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used to describe Ellsberg in 1971.

In the 1960s, Ellsberg was a high-level Pentagon official, a former Marine commander who believed the American government was always on the right side. But while working for the administration of Lyndon Johnson, Ellsberg had access to a top-secret document that revealed senior American leaders, including several presidents, knew that the Vietnam War was an unwinnable, tragic quagmire.

Officially titled "United States-Viet Nam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense,"–the Pentagon Papers, as they became known–also showed that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the war. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000-page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In, 1971, Ellsberg leaked all 7,000 pages to The Washington Post, and 18 other newspapers, including The New York Times, which published them.

Not long after, he surrendered to authorities and confessed to being the leaker. Ellsberg was charged as a spy. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed on grounds of governmental misconduct against him. In April 1973, the court learned that Nixon had ordered his so-called "Plumbers Unit" to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to steal documents they hoped might make the whistle-blower appear crazy. In May, more evidence of government illegal wiretapping was revealed. The charges against Ellsberg were dropped. This led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon. (*More bio below)

The federal government has now declassified the Pentagon Papers. The Nixon Presidential Library & Museum will release the documents on June 13, forty years to the day that leaked portions of the report were published on the front page of  The New York Times.

Also, the PBS series POV  is streaming “The Most Dangerous Man inAmerica: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” on June 13 and 14.  

In this interview, Ellsberg says, "Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, would feel vindicated that all the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal. " (Thanks to the Patriot Act and other laws passed in recent years.) And he says all presidents since Nixon have violated the constitution, most recently President Obama, with the bombing of Libya.

FULL POST

The Number of the Day is One.

There’s only one member left on President Obama’s original team of economic advisers.

Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, announced that he is returning to teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business some time later this summer. Apparently, he didn’t want to lose tenure.

He had taken over for Christina Romer, who left last September. Peter Orszag, who ran the Office of Management and Budget, exited last July. This past January, Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, left the president’s side and returned to Harvard.

Side note thehill.com reports at some point during the first two years of his administration, Obama stopped receiving the daily economic briefing that he requested when he took office.

And the economy may now be stalling. The housing market is in a tailspin. The deficit grows and the average length of time of those who continue to be unemployed increases.  And Democrats and Republicans can’t seem to agree on what to cut, how to create jobs, how to grow the economy.

So who is still there from the original economic dream team?

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

While we wish him only the best, regular readers of this blog already know that I’ve had some pretty significant differences with the Treasury Secretary. FULL POST

Aaron David Miller, former State Department analyst and negotiator, spoke with Eliot about the situation in the Golan Heights.

Israel and the United States on Monday blamed Syria for violent protests on the country's border with the occupied Golan Heights. The demonstrations were a provocation designed to draw international attention away from harsh reprisals against protesters in Hama and other Syrian cities, the countries said.

Israeli officials said 10 people died Sunday when fire bombs thrown by protesters detonated landmines, said Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman. Syrian state media reported 23 protesters were killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on demonstrators.

Miller, Public Policy Scholar Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and author of the book, "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace," says "the Syrians are essentially sending the message, we still have options. We can still play in the Arab/Israeli conflict, and they are essentially border crashing."

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s OFF-SET questions is Sam Maden, a 7^th grader at Pennichuck Middle School in Nashua, New Hampshire, and his working mom, Tara.

The Boston Red Sox announced they will join the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs in telling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth that "It Gets Better." More than 9,000 people signed 12-year-old Sam Maden's petition on Change.org urging the Red Sox to make an It Gets Better video.

Sam petition drive began after his seventh-grade teacher asked him to come up with a project that could “make a difference” in the world.

Here’s the letter Sam wrote to accompany his petition:

Every day, gay and lesbian teens in Middle School and High School are made fun of and bullied. It's sad that some of them are bullied so badly, they decide to commit suicide. Recently, a petition much like this one was created to ask the San Francisco Giants to make an "It Gets Better" video. The Giants announced that they will make a video against bullying. We can do the same.

My name is Sam, I am 12 years old and my two friends and I really like the Boston Red Sox. If we can get a lot of signatures from our peers and teachers, we can possibly have the Red Sox make a video too!

Do you know students who are made fun of and bullied?

Sam: Yes, I’ve seen it. I feel bad for them. I feel bad that they have no control over it, and that that they have no ability to change it–because usually they don’t have the confidence to tell someone to stop. FULL POST

WEINER APOLOGIZES – A week after claiming a hacker had posted a lewd photo to his Twitter account, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on Monday apologized for lying about the incident and admitted carrying on inappropriate relationships with several women he'd met online. Weiner, a New York Democrat, said he is not resigning his seat, nor is he planning on separating from his wife. But he said he took "full responsibility" for his actions - both the relationships and for lying about sending the photo last month of his bulging underwear on his Twitter account.

Meanwhile, on Monday, right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart stood by his role in the Weiner scandal. "Everything I've said so far has been proved true," he said of his stories about the congressman. "Give me one example of provable lie."

Breitbart is scheduled to appear In The Arena on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. FULL POST