She’s got a name for headlines, and her politician husband a strange knack for keeping them in the limelight.  No , no time machine flashback, not Hillary, but her former aide de camp – Huma Adebin.  The Humanity, the Humaliation, the Humar of Wiener’s Wee-Wee-peat – the list could go on and on, but surprisingly, even the UK’s Daily Mail has been circumspect with “Huma Adebin Faces Backlash For Standing By Her Man.” This from a paper that has called Pippa Middleton’s 34b’s lolling and sagging, clearly not known for its restraint.  The New York Post, also not a harbinger of tact and decorum, went with “Pained Huma Backs Husband, Marriage.” A blog for New York Magazine went with “No Longer Flawless, Huma’s Been Humanized.” Ironically, Harper’s Bazaar, in an article penned by Adebin and printed previous to Anthony Weiner’s latest sexting scandal, opted for “The Good Wife.”

According to political media strategist Adam Weiss, in speaking to the Post,  Adebin and Weiner are crude power whores, or thereabouts.

“They are that power hungry that she stands there and she accepts the
disgracefulness of serial cheating from her husband. Huma comes from the Clinton school of forgiveness — power is more important than dignity.”

If you watch clips of the press release, never once is there Stand By Your Man blaring in the background.  Adebin doesn’t have a valium induced glaze as she reads a statement prepared by his handlers.  It is as dignified as a press conference about this subject could be. It might be at this moment, despite Weiss and various others bashing her for everything from power-hunger to feminist selling out, that Adebin is at her most human, as New York Mag points out, and in that, her most dignified.  Gone is the woman Hillary Clinton, her possibly former mentor (yeah, just ask me how much I want Adebin’s job as HRC’s aide, so much. . . .), as having ‘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.’  In its place was a woman gathering the tattered fabrics of Aeth’s coat around her to preserve her marriage and, well, possibly launch her own political career (phoenixically making lemons for lemonade?).

Can Adebin rise from ashes of Weiner’s political hopes like Alicia’s resurrected law career on CBS’ The Good Wife?  Or recover her known poise and cool, and good relationship with the public like Jackie O, another famously cheated on political spouse.  Her mentor, HRC, certainly had experience in taking the publically cheating husband, winning over public sentiment and creating the most out of the situation.  There are no clear paths for someone who has publically admitted to working on her marriage, but well so have Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Neither Weiner, nor JFK (though he’s no JFK) are the first politician to stray from the covenant of marriage.  Some of our greatest politicians have been sexist, philandering d-bags in private, or semi-private (Jefferson and Wilson to name a few).  It’s not the right of a politician by any means, and the latest affair calls into doubt Weiner’s basic intelligence and understanding of 21^st century media and privacy.  But Huma has a long list of very dignified people – yes, mostly women but think about the ratio of female politicians to male –  to follow, who can show that dignity under any situation is power and any relationship takes work, lots and lots of work.

Consider the current congress – only 18 percent are women.  Mashable found that only 1 in 20 women have been caught sexting the wrong partner.  So the chance for cheating wives sexting and being outed is slim.  At that rate, 5 women in Congress are likable to be doing it, and caught, and attract public attention for it.

On sexting, Mashable also found that men were twice as likely than women to be caught sexting someone who was not a partner, while women were more likely than men to sext a partner.  And seriously, who would want Gillebrand (upper central New York, just a little bit of gun totin’ cheatin-man shootin’ Appalachia in your neighborhood) or Pelosi (so about those family connections, Nance) angry at them?  And for a little lightheartedness, check out Buzzfeed’s text never to send to the wrong person.

And speaking of names, has anyone looked at the entymology of Weiner’s last name?  Is letting it all hang out a traditionally family pastime? Just wondering.