This much we know. But what else does the story that has Washington all a-twitter reveal about everyone's favorite microblogging service?
1. Twitter is very effective at spreading the news, but it can't control it.
For Twitter itself, the Weiner story couldn't have broken at a less appropriate time. The company's CEO, Dick Costolo, and a large portion of its PR team were hunkered down at the All Things Digital conference in beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes, California, preparing to launch -- of all things -- its new photo-sharing service. Costolo deftly batted away questions about Weiner with a "no comment." But for a company that is anxious to prove its maturity, talking about ways to share pictures on Twitter at a time when the most famous example of that is a lewd underwear snap could only have been frustrating.
2. Maybe this is a good time to launch Twitter photo-sharing after all.
Reports emerged Thursday that the mysterious sender of that photo may well have exploited a security flaw in yFrog, a third-party photo-sharing service. The loophole would have allowed anyone to send a picture from Weiner's account using tools no more advanced than e-mail. YFrog has since disabled the e-mail feature. Still, that's a strong argument for sharing photos directly and securely from your Twitter account -- which is exactly what Twitter is launching.