Weiner after stealing Bloomberg spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker from campaign headquarters.Photo-illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Getty Images

Self-described "quasi candidate" Anthony Weiner is becoming increasingly agitated by negative stories that he claims are being fed to newspapers by the Bloomberg campaign. He says that despite the upbeat, friendly, casually dressed Bloomberg the city sees in TV commercials, the mayor is secretly running "the most consistently and relentlessly negative campaign that I and many people I know have seen." Surely, if Hizzoner's campaign is behind the negative press (and a spokesperson didn't deny it to the Times), he hopes to nudge the wavering congressman out of the race for good — even though, in our very own pages recently, Weiner made it sound as if that were already the case. But a strategist close to Weiner says the intimidation makes him "more inclined to run, not less," and the congressman himself is warning Bloomberg that he doesn't "walk away from a fight." In other words, it may not be a good idea to make him angry.

Congressman Accuses Bloomberg Campaign of Spreading Negative Stories [NYT]