(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

The phantom-charities scandal currently engulfing the City Council is good news for one person: Representative Anthony Weiner, who wants to be mayor. The federal indictment of two aides to a Brooklyn City Councilman last week over the disbursement of city funds to nonexistent nonprofits was a blow to Weiner’s two most serious rivals, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (the alleged practice continued on her watch as Council Speaker) and City Comptroller Bill Thompson (he’s in charge of monitoring taxpayer dough). The indictments came after Quinn admitted improprieties in her office, too. The Speaker was “running as a reformer/do-gooder, and all for transparency. Now she can’t really do that,” gloated one Weinerite. “She’s got a big problem.” And Thompson? “He should have had oversight over this thing.” Weiner isn’t going to forget this mess—“If Christine runs, he’s gonna make a big deal of it”—but for now the congressman is staying mum. “Why should he get involved? He’ll just come off looking political, and he doesn’t need to.”

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