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Anthony Weiner: ‘Nothing Huma can’t do’
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The Huma Abedin fan club is growing — fast.
There’s John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Ed Rollins, Republicans who leapt to the defense of Hillary Clinton’s top State Department confidante when Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) suggested that she just might be a traitor.
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There’s a Facebook group of folks who “stand with Huma.”
(PHOTOS: Huma Abedin)
And there are countless women and men around the country who thought she handled her husband Anthony Weiner’s Twitter malfunction with all the grace and elegance that he lacked.
Abedin’s finding out an enduring truth of Washington politics: Yesterday’s victim is tomorrow’s hero.
Some Democrats are whispering that it might be Abedin, not Weiner, who has a future in elective politics.
“There’s nothing Huma can’t do,” Weiner said in an email Thursday morning.
State Department spokesman Philippe Reines said he’d give “points for creativity” on the question of whether she might run for office when she’s done at State.
Few outside of the political world had heard of Abedin before Weiner tweeted a lewd photo of his crotch, lied to the country about his online interactions with a series of women, and finally resigned his House seat under pressure from Democratic leaders following his confession.
(PHOTOS: 8 times Weiner lied about lewd pics)
But her political stature had been on the rise for years. Now a deputy chief of staff at the State Department, Abedin began working for the Clintons in 1996, served as Hillary Clinton’s body woman during the 2008 presidential primary and is as close to the secretary of State — both metaphorically and physically — as anyone. Her big public coming-out moment: A 2007 Vogue profile that portrayed her as Clinton’s protegé.
“Abedin has the energy of a woman in her 20s, the confidence of a woman in her 30s, the experience of a woman in her 40s, and the grace of a woman in her 50s,” Hillary Clinton told Vogue. “She is timeless, her combination of poise, kindness, and intelligence are matchless.”
In 2010, the same year she married Weiner, Time listed her as a civic leader under 40 to watch.
Adding to the intrigue surrounding the newlywed power couple: Abedin was pregnant with the couple’s first child when the scandal broke a little more than a year ago.
Combined, that was enough for Abedin to develop a bit of a cult following among liberal women, particularly Hillary Clinton fans. She stayed with her man, but she didn’t stand by him — at least not literally.
Abedin proved loyal but independent, parting from so many political wives who have appeared onstage as their husbands delivered tearful televised apologies in what has become a modern cleansing ritual for unfaithful officials who hope their constituents will forgive them.
Forbes magazine gushed last June that she was “anything but the ‘good wife.’”
Instead, she has continued to steadily build her own profile over the past year — and tried to reshape her husband’s reputation at the same time.
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Author:
- Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc)
Read more about:
- John McCain,
- Hillary Clinton,
- Anthony Weiner,
- State Department,
- Huma Abedin,
- Michele Bachmann
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Readers' Comments (310)
I would love to see Obama nominate her to Secretary of State after Hillary steps down, if nothing else, just to tweak the lunatic fringe right-wing nutjobs like Bachmann.
She is a very smart woman, something republicans fear, they like theirs dumb like Sarah Palin
Michelle Bachmann is as despicable and evil as it gets
Bet I know something she can't do: Say her full married name "huma weiner" without busting out laughing.
Just one more Muslim that has the infidels fooled.
Couldn't you find a photo of her that didn't look so...so....Michael Jacksonish.
Nothing Huma can't do ? Not too good at picking a husband............