Weiner in my soup!
Jobless, desperate & calling restaurant
Anthony Weiner is so desperate for work, he has been dialing up friends in the restaurant industry for advice and job leads, sources said.
Days after the Nov. 8 presidential election, the disgraced former congressman and failed mayoral candidate spoke with a pal at the Hunt & Fish Club, the swanky Times Square meet market, about his future, two sources familiar with the conversation said. “He said . . . he’s ‘looking for whatever’s next,’ ” one source said.
Weiner didn’t inquire about specific openings at the chophouse but asked them to “think of anything, what I could do for my next step.” A master of understatement, Weiner glumly acknowledged, “There’s not a lot that’s necessarily available.”
The source thought Weiner could fill a “back of the house” role — perhaps at brother Jason Weiner’s Bridgehampton-based bistro Almond. Neither Weiner replied to e-mails and calls seeking comment.
The serial sexter resigned from Congress in June 2011 after tweeting a picture of his crotch to a woman and then lying that his account had been hacked.
Weiner attempted a political comeback in May 2013 when he ran for mayor, with his now-estranged wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, advising him.
He even led a five-way Democratic primary field until a report two months later revealed that in 2012 he sent explicit messages online to another woman.
He tried to keep a low profile during the 2016 elections, but reports surfaced this fall that he sent illicit e-mails to a 15-year-old North Carolina girl. He checked into a Tennessee rehabilitation clinic for cybersex-addiction treatment.
Federal investigators seized four electronic devices from Weiner and his estranged wife, including a laptop he used to communicate with the teenager.
The probe found Clinton-related e-mails on the laptop that Abedin had sent or received, which led FBI Director James Comey to re-examine the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server 12 days before the election.
By the time Weiner returned to New York, Clinton’s presidential hopes had imploded and a federal grand jury considered pressing sex-crimes charges against him.
Last week, the city Campaign Finance Board fined him $65,000 for spending mayoral campaign cash on personal expenses.
Some political sages say Weiner would make a good TV commentator.
“He is very smart and insightful . . . but the media outlet that may hire him has to make sure there are no more embarrassing moments,” said Democratic consultant George Arzt. “Can you trust his word that he’s OK and has not done anything else?”
Then there’s the possibility of cashing in on a tell-all. Publisher Simon & Schuster paid Hillary Clinton $14 million for her 2014 memoir “Hard Choices.”
But others think his job prospects are dim. “He has no formal education or training in a different sector,” said one Democratic insider. “It’s very difficult. He’s hated by both parties.”
Weiner likely needs a change of scenery, as opposed to a job in the service industry, another political operative said.
“If I were him, I’d change my name to Smith and move to Idaho,” the source said. “He’s too well known here. Imagine seeing him in a restaurant. ‘ Can I have a table for three?’ ”
ANTHONY Weiner (inset) is apparently so broke that he had to cut short his rehabilitation for sexting addiction at a Tennessee ranch.
“His family wanted him to stay 90 days, but he had to leave because he ran out of money,” one source told me.
It is believed Weiner — known as Carlos Danger by some crotch-shot recipients — was billed $25,000 for the 35-day program at the Recovery Ranch.
“His parents took out a mortgage on their house to pay for his rehab,” my source said. The former congressman is unemployable and potentially in debt. The Post reported Friday he’s been hit with $65,000 in fines for improper use of campaign funds — money it sounds like he doesn’t have. Weiner returned last week to the Upper East Side apartment he still shares with his wife, Huma Abedin, who announced their separation in August, and their son Jordan, 4. Abedin is believed to be getting a steady paycheck from the Clinton Foundation, where she has worked before.