New photos surface of Rep. Anthony Weiner

Provocative new photographs of Rep. Anthony Weiner purportedly taken in the House Members' Gym surfaced Sunday, intensifying pressure on him to resign.

Democrats said Sunday they were reluctant to wait for a House Ethics Committee probe to move against the Forest Hills Democrat, a process that could take months. Calls for Weiner's resignation picked up steam Friday after the disclosure that he exchanged online messages with a 17-year-old girl in Delaware.

With new questions being raised about Weiner's use of the House Members' Gym, where he purportedly took photos of himself, some in just a towel, Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House's second-ranking Democrat, said Weiner should consider resigning. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also called for him to step down.

"Forcing him out will require a process," Hoyer, of Maryland, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's going to take time. I really don't know that we have that time."

The new photos -- published first by TMZ.com, which said they were sent to at least one woman -- were the latest in a spiraling scandal engulfing Weiner and the Democratic Party since his disclosure last Monday that he lied about tweeting a photo of himself in his underwear to a young woman and had online relationships with six women.

Weiner has refused to resign and checked himself into an out-of-town clinic Saturday for unspecified therapy, aides said. They would not reveal his location or comment on the photos.

Republicans seized on the scandal Sunday to criticize Pelosi, who initially did not demand Weiner quit. "It seemed to me that for the first 10 days in this circus that the only job that Nancy Pelosi was interested in saving was Anthony Weiner's," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The latest photos added another dimension to the scandal, considering TMZ.com's claim that Weiner took the photos in the gym. A Capitol Hill Democratic source said the question of whether Weiner misused the gym would be part of a larger House Ethics Committee probe called for by Pelosi.

"Taking pictures in the House gym may not mean much, but in the context of everything else, it just adds to the insanity," said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford).

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights) Sunday called on Weiner to quit. "It's time. He's become a distraction to the Democratic agenda," Ackerman said in a statement. At the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said "it's obviously sad and unfortunate on a number of levels, but whether or not he should resign, that's up to him, his constituents and the Democratic leadership."

Polls show majorities in Weiner's Queens and Brooklyn district want him to stay.

Outside Weiner's Kew Gardens office Sunday, about two dozen members of the Juniper Park Civic Association, an influential community group, demanded Weiner's resignation. A counterprotest of about eight people then sprang up, their chants of "Weiner must stay" drowning out the anti-Weiner contingent. With Emily Ngo