Once a longtime friend now a possible political opponent, Republican mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota has welcomed the Marist/WSJ poll showing Anthony Weiner pulling ahead of his primary contenders.

“It won’t take me long to convince you to send me an urgently-needed contribution to my campaign,” writes Republican mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota, in a fund-raising email sent out this morning to supporters. “In fact, I think it will only take seven words: One of my opponents is Anthony Weiner.”

“Like me, I’m sure that you had hoped to have seen the last of Anthony Weiner when he resigned from Congress following an illicit sexual Twitter scandal and botched cover up, but he’s back and desperate for political redemption,” continues the email. “Now a candidate for mayor of New York City, he is so determined to be back in the spotlight that he’s padding his resume with dubious claims like bragging that he coined the term ‘Obamacare’ … But it’s the same old story with Anthony Weiner. First, he lies to the public, the press and his family. And then he makes up his own facts. This is a pattern that is simply unacceptable. To make matters worse, it appears that what he is doing is working — a poll released just yesterday shows Weiner leading the Democrat primary … and it’s up to us to stop him.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)