Weiner Pulling Out?

Considering his recent campaign contribution woes, shelving a run against New York's richest man may not be the best career move right now for Anthony Weiner.

Amid mounting speculation that he will not run for mayor, Representative Anthony D. Weiner sent his supporters a long letter Wednesday afternoon declaring that...well, that he hasn’t really made up his mind.

Huh?

Mr. Weiner, a Democrat whose political future has become the subject of an intense guessing game, said he would make a final decision about whether to enter the mayor’s race this summer, after Congress goes into recess.

At that moment, he wrote, “I will look at the lay of the land again and try to determine the best political course.”

In the letter, Mr. Weiner said that this is not a time for politics, with the economy in tatters and city residents hungry for problem solving in Washington.

“So you won’t see me holding campaign rallies. You won’t see me knocking on doors asking for votes,” he wrote.

The letter represents Mr. Weiner’s fullest explanation – and defense – of his strategy to date – and its very existence suggests that his donors and supporters are anxious about his relative disengagement from the mayoral campaign.

His two biggest potential rivals in the race, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., have hired campaign managers and begun trading barbs over policies.

Beating Bloomberg at this juncture appears to be a long shot for anyone. Weiner can certainly keep his Congressional seat indefinitely and can return to run again in 2013, unless of course Bloomberg anoints himself King before that time.