????Anthony Weiner ?? ?U.S. lawmaker in Twitter photo scandal ??? Fellow Democrats mounted increasing pressure Wednesday for Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign, a day after party leaders turned their backs on the liberal congressman embroiled in a “sexting” scandal. ? ??? EMBATTLED New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s prospects for political survival dimmed precipitously Wednesday with the appearance on the Internet of an X-rated photo said to be of the congressman — and the first calls from fellow Democrats for him to step down. ????“In light of Anthony Weiner’s offensive behavior online, he should resign,” Pennsylvania Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a member of the party campaign committee’s leadership, said in a statement that was quickly followed by similar expressions from other Democrats. ????Separately, as the political scandal increasingly roiled the Democratic Party, several officials said that Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was pregnant. An official at the State Department, where Abedin serves as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, had no comment. Abedin was traveling with Clinton on an official trip to the Mideast and Africa. ????An ethics investigation would examine if Weiner violated House rules or brought the chamber into disrepute. ????The code of conduct for members of Congress calls for them to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” However, ethics experts say legislators are rarely, if ever, disciplined for violating that rule alone. ???? ????Weiner, 46, has admitted sending explicit photos and messages via the Internet to about a half-dozen women over the past three years. He vowed at a news conference Monday to remain in office, and one lawmaker who spoke to him Wednesday said Weiner indicated he still hoped to ride out the furor and remain in Congress. ????But the appearance of a photo of a man’s genitals added yet another aspect to what appears to be a sex scandal without actual sex in the age of social media. According to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, Weiner sent the picture of himself to one of the women with whom he corresponded online. ????On Wednesday, spokeswoman Risa B. Heller noted in a statement that Weiner had said at the Monday news conference that he “has sent explicit photos. To reiterate, he has never met any of these women or had physical contact with them.” ????The photo made its way to the Web site Gawker by a circuitous route, after Breitbart showed it to the hosts of Sirius XM radio’s “Opie and Anthony Show.” ????One of the women whom Weiner sexted, Lisa Weiss, a 40-year-old blackjack dealer from Las Vegas, said the online relationship started as flirtation, and he escalated the graphic comments. ????“Yes. I was very shocked at the beginning. ... I would want to talk politics,” she said in an interview on “Inside Edition.” “But he would turn it creepy.” ????Weiss said she believes Weiner has “a weird fetish,” but that “it doesn’t make him a bad politician ... or a bad congressman. It makes him a bad husband.” ????Asked what she’d say to Weiner’s wife, Weiss said: “I want to apologize. I should not have been flirting with her husband.” ????By day’s end Wednesday, at least six House Democrats had called for Weiner to step down. ????Schwartz was the first, and politically the most significant because of her position as a senior leader on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ???? ????While declining to make any public comment since Monday, Weiner has been on something of an apology tour by telephone. He has contacted fellow House members and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who officiated at the congressman’s wedding to Abedin nearly a year ago. ????According to a Democratic congressman who received one of the calls, Weiner was “very contrite” and said he “let everyone down.” The legislator, speaking on condition of not being named because it was a private conversation, said Weiner was so choked up he could “barely get the words out,” and told him that he was going to “get some help.” ????Weiner was first elected to Congress in 1998 and has won seven straight elections. ????Whether or not Weiner retains the support of most of his constituents, many analysts believe he has almost certainly lost his spot as a front-runner in New York’s 2013 mayoral election. ????In addition, multiple New York Democratic sources told CNN on Wednesday they believed it was highly likely Weiner would ultimately lose his congressional district as part of a redistribution deal. (SD-Agencies) | 