announced his Twitter account had never been hacked, that he had indeed sent pictures of his own wiener to an innocent college student named Genette Cordova? I'll admit it; I was scanning the crowd for Huma Abedin, Weiner's wife, the one woman who was most affected by his decision to sext Cordova online.
The way I see it, as an American citizen and one-time fan of his politics, I was affected by his decision to lie about it. But Abedin, who was married to the New York Congressman, was the one truly affected by his decision to engage in sexual dalliances online with a score of lady friends. And now she deserves a bigger break than she's getting from the public.
Specifically, the folks who have called up Abedin's job as a one-time intern in the Clinton White House, turned chief of staff for then former first lady Hillary Clinton during her 2008 run for the presidency, turned aide for Madame Secretary of State as a "well, she should have seen this coming, she shoulda been prepared because Bill was a dirty dog who cheated on HIS wife." Really, America? (Pardon me, I can't find the link, perhaps it was removed because it was THAT bad??)
In truth, when the former president officiated at the couple's wedding last year, he joked marrying a politician can be difficult, because it is “easy to distrust them, whatever their religion.” Prophetic words, perhaps, but that doesn't mean Abedin should have been sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it certainly doesn't make it any easier.
We love to talk about how we can't trust our politicians, and we tend to sneer at anyone who says they do. When I threw up a Facebook status last night about how disappointed I was in Weiner's announcement, a dear friend asked if I'd really trusted in his goodness to begin with. And I'll admit I had never trusted him completely. He's a politician. They have so many people to please, they can never please them all.
But at home, at least, we hope our politicians morph back into regular joes, that they treat their spouses, kids, parents, friends, neighbors, as the rest of us do our own. That they can turn off the "always yessing them to death" and reveal their true selves.
Huma Abedin should have had the chance to trust her husband. She shouldn't have had to sit around wondering, "Hey, is this guy going to snap a picture of his package and shoot it out over the interwebs?" Anthony Weiner victimized his own wife. This has nothing to do with the Clintons or politics. This has to do with him, his typing fingers, and his inability to keep his lusty thoughts from pouring through them.
It doesn't matter who she worked for. It doesn't matter how long she's been in politics. For her, it doesn't matter, really, what he did to the American public. At the end of the day, for Huma Abedin, this is a story of whether or not she feels she can forgive her husband. It's no wonder she wasn't in that audience. She has her own story. She should be left alone to figure out the ending.
Have you thought about Congressman Weiner's wife in this whole debacle?
Image via Getty Images/Jonathan Ernst