Oklahoma Democrat announces he won’t seek reelection, 5th term

Boren began his political career in 2002 by winning a seat in the state House of Representatives, enjoying name recognition that few other candidates in the state could hope for. His father, David Boren, served as governor and senator before he became president of the University of Oklahoma.

Boren said yesterday that he is not ruling out a future run for political office, and said he would love to be governor, as his father was, but that he would not run against the current governor, Republican Mary Fallin. He also said he will not endorse anyone vying for his seat in the next election.

— Associated Press

Democratic colleagues won’t back N.Y.’s Weiner WASHINGTON — Fellow Democrats pointedly refused to defend Representative Anthony Weiner yesterday, telegraphing an unmistakable eagerness for him to resign after he admitted sending a lewd photo of himself to a woman via Twitter and lying about it.

Republicans swiftly sought political profit from the New York Democrat’s predicament, which threatened to deepen when conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart said he had a sexually explicit photo of the congressman.

His political career in extreme jeopardy, Weiner, 46, had no public appearances. His spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

On Monday, after days of denials, the lawmaker admitted he had engaged in “several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and occasionally on the phone with women I had met online.’’

Alternately apologetic and defiant, he said he neither met nor had physical relationships with any of them, and added, “I am not resigning.’’

There is little that party leaders can do to force an errant lawmaker to quit, although House Republicans have moved decisively in the past year to purge two men in embarrassing situations.

Most Democrats maintained an uncomfortable silence about Weiner’s future, part of what several senior congressional officials described as a hope that over a few days, Weiner would reconsider his refusal to resign.

But Senate majority leader Harry Reid broke the silence.