Anthony Weiner's downfall: Blame the images

UPDATED 5:59 p.m. ET

Sometimes, children's sayings can tell you all you need to know about Washington. Consider this (slightly edited) classic saying: Sticks and stills may break bones, but words will never hurt.

In the media world, television cameramen are known as sticks, for the tripods they carry, and still photographers are known as stills, for obvious reasons. What does that have to do with Anthony Weiner, you ask?

When a politician is in trouble, it's often the images -- the sticks and stills -- that sink them.

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The New York Democrat announced his resignation from Congress on Thursday after more than a dozen years on Capitol Hill and nearly three weeks of being hounded by reporters and photographers. Weiner was one of the most media-savvy members of Congress, appearing on television nearly daily during the mammoth debate over health care policy.

But that need to be in front of the camera may have done Weiner in.

Weiner did some really, really stupid things, to be sure. Who sends photos of themselves in various states of undress to random strangers on the Internet?

And, if his claims are accurate, Weiner never even met these women in person. But he lied about his stupidity. And there were the photos to bust him in his lies. Ah, the photos.

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When Republican Sen. David Vitter showed up on the list of clients of a Washington prostitution ring, Vitter admitted that he had sought the services of prostitutes, a crime that is actually against the law. But no photos have surfaced of the Louisiana Republican with working girls. Four years later, Vitter is still in office.

Former Republican Rep. Chris Lee, the obscure N.Y. lawmaker who sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman he had contacted through Craigslist, knew his time in public office was up the moment the photo was posted a on gossip website. He resigned the same day, even though he too had never even met the woman.

John Ensign, the Nevada Republican senator who had an affair with the wife of a top aide who was a political aide herself, lasted for nearly two years in office. He only stepped down earlier this year after it became in his party's interest to name a replacement with a better chance of re-election next year as an existing senator. It's hard to imagine that being the case had there been embarrasing photos when the affair was revealed.

And then there is Eliot Spitzer, the former Democratic New York governor turned television host. Spitzer was, of course, Client #9 to a young Ashley Dupré, who worked for the Emperors Club VIP, a New York call girl agency. When news of Spitzer's routine broke in 2008, it was inevitable that photos of the twenty-something starlet would come out. And Spitzer resigned on the same day the photos emerged.

All this goes to show that, indeed, sticks and stills may break bones, but words will never hurt.