The first crush of the crowd was toward the accuser, not the accused. Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart was swarmed by reporters as he entered the royal blue third-floor ballroom of the Sheraton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon, just minutes before Rep. Anthony Weiner was scheduled to speak about the lewd photos he was rumored to have sent to women he met online.

It took little convincing to get Breitbart to the podium, where he railed against a perceived liberal conspiracy to cast him as the originator of the scandal, reprimanded his detractors in the media and threatened Weiner not to continue “fighting,” lest an unreleased “x-rated” photo leak out. But after Breitbart’s self-indulgent sideshow was done and the main circus event — Weiner’s tearful, televised admission to sending lewd photos and sexual communiqués to six different women over three years — was well underway, it was clear that the seven-term New York congressman had few defenders and little fight left.