Anthony Weiner and his wife, Huma Abedin, have opened up to the New York Times Magazine about the Great Crotch-Shot Scandal of 2011 and how they overcame it. The story is part of an image-rehabilitation effort for Weiner as he contemplates a mayoral run later this year. But, instead of convincing us that a mellowed, remorseful Weiner should run for mayor, it made a compelling case for Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s worldly right-hand woman.
She’s a workaholic who will shun personal obligations for the good of the city:
Abedin told me a story about how her nieces and nephews made a video for her for Mother’s Day last year, portraying her as always half-engaged or absent because of work. Abedin was in tears. “Anthony was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I said, ‘All they think I do is work!’ The entire movie was: ‘Aunt Huma, Aunt Huma, Jordan’s walking!’ ‘Oh, I’m on a conference call. I have to go on this trip.’ … I didn’t even process how much what I did dictated my personal life.”
Nothing, including learning that her congressman husband sent photos of his crotch to women on the Internet — this will probably not happen again, but still — can deter her from carrying out her duty:
Two days later, Abedin boarded Clinton’s plane for a weeklong trip to Africa, with a stop in the United Arab Emirates. “My compass was my job,” she says.
She is thoughtful, patient, merciful, and basically a saint:
“It took a lot of work, both mentally and in the way we engage with each other, for me to get to a place where I said: ‘O.K., I’m in. I’m staying in this marriage.’ Here was a man I respected, I loved, was the father of this child inside of me, and he was asking me for a second chance. And I’m not going to say that was an easy or fast decision that I made. It’s been almost two years now. I did spend a lot of time saying and thinking: ‘I. Don’t. Understand.’ And it took a long time to be able to sit on a couch next to Anthony and say, ‘O.K., I understand and I forgive.’”
Most important, though, she will never send photos of her crotch to people over Twitter because she has never been on Twitter:
“I’ve never been on Twitter,” Abedin says.
As an added bonus, New York would have a close personal friend in the White House once Hillary Clinton becomes president. As for Weiner, he’d make a fine Crossfire host.
