chest?" The man behind it turned out to be a writer for the Howard Stern Show named Benjy Bronk. Many of the spectators said the episode was a startling finale for the once-promising hometown politician whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn. "It was pathetic and sad," said online publisher Binyamin Jolkovsky, 42. "A guy built a career, made it three-fourths of the way up the hill and then it all collapses." Known as brash, liberal and ambitious, the seven-term congressman had run for mayor of New York in 2005 and had been expected to do so again. He had raised $4 million in campaign funds so far. On Thursday, he hinted that he would somehow stay involved in public life. "I got into politics to help give voice to the many that simply did not have one," he said. "Now I'll be looking for other ways to contribute my talents to make sure that we live up to that most New York and American of ideals: the idea that leading a family, a community and ultimately a country is the one thing that all unites us, the one thing we're all focused on." He did not take questions. Democratic Party leaders, concerned that Weiner could weigh the party down in the 2012 elections, had welcomed the announcement after days spent trying to coax, push and finally coerce the wayward politician into quitting. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has the authority to call a special election to fill the seat once the congressman submits his resignation. However, because of population shifts, New York state is to lose two House seats in 2013, and lawmakers may target Weiner's former district. His replacement could get a job that ends in just 19 months. "Congressman Weiner exercised poor judgment in his actions and poor judgment in his reaction to the revelations," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement released moments after Weiner spoke. "Today, he made the right judgment in resigning." He did not explain his presence in New York, several days after issuing a statement that said he was seeking treatment. Other Democrats said he had left the city to do so. Weiner's departure marks the end of a bizarre period born of his use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook. His problems began May 28, when a website run by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart posted a lewd photograph of an underwear-clad crotch and said it had been sent from Weiner's Twitter account to a Seattle woman. As the scandalous chapter neared its conclusion, a former pornography actress who exchanged emails and messages over Twitter with him said Wednesday at a news conference he had asked her to lie about their interactions. Ginger Lee said she and Weiner exchanged about 100 emails between March and June after Lee posted a supportive statement about the congressman on her blog. He then contacted her on Twitter, Lee said. They mostly discussed politics, but he would often turn the conversation to sex, she said. Weiner's initial reaction after the first photo became public more than two weeks ago was to lie, and he did so repeatedly, saying his Twitter account had been hacked. But he did not report his claim to law enforcement — a step that could have opened him to charges of far more serious wrongdoing. Nor were his public denials persuasive, especially when he told one interviewer he could not "say with certitude" that he wasn't the faceless man in the underwear photo. His eventual confession triggered a tabloid-style frenzy in print and online that only grew more pronounced a few days later when an X-rated photo surfaced on a website. After initially calling for a House ethics investigation, Pelosi ramped up the pressure on Saturday when she joined with Rep. Steve Israel of New York and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, leader of the Democratic National Committee, in calling on Weiner to step down. President Barack Obama added to the pressure two days later