Anthony Weiner held a painful and brief press conference Monday to admit to more sexually explicit text messages.
I am not writing today about the messages, the content or the context in which they were made. I write about the body language of Weiner (aka Carlos Danger) and his wife (for the moment), Huma Abedin.
Weiner is political toast. Not because of what he sent. Rather, it's because he showed that he was so uncomfortable during the press conference and furthermore during the very abbreviated question and answer session, he signaled to the news media that there is much, much more to this story.
Weiner didn't just throw more wood on the fire. He got a tanker of gasoline and emptied it on the fire.
Virtually running away from the media is guaranteed to make every ensuing public appearance an impromptu (and unavoidable) media event and reporter feeding frenzy. The professional media will be there. The paparazzi will be there. And dozens of wannabe amateur videographers wanting to post video on YouTube or Instagram will be there too. Exposure shall become the order of the day, each day, for Anthony Weiner. This will stop only with his political ruin, either in dropping out or becoming so toxic that he fades into irrelevance. The latter fate may be more probable and painful for Weiner, as he has likely spent his entire life -- and defining himself to his personal core -- reaching for high elected office.
Remove the electability from Weiner and you have a shell of a man. In essence, he is a walking zombie, basically dead but still moving. I am no psychiatrist but I think he is not at risk of humiliation, or of divorce, as he is of committing suicide.
As for Huma Abedin, at first she seemed very uncomfortable, spinning around and all but hiding her face. But then she spoke to the media.
Huma Abedin showed far more composure and class than her husband. She controlled the room. She controlled the moment. Huma Abedin took over the show and became its star. In the process, Huma created and enhanced her prospects: political, financial...and personal.
While most women -- and mothers -- her age would find it harder (relatively speaking) to find a new husband, Huma has likely made herself far more than a sympathetic victim. Now, she may become -- dare we speak it -- a catch.
Then, if you listened carefully to Huma's words, she was condemning her husband, basically damning him with the faintest of redemptions. She verbally cuckolded him.
Amazingly, at perhaps the darkest hour of Anthony Weiner's political life -- if not his personal life -- Huma Abedin shoved him into virtual irrelevance.
Amazingly, at perhaps the darkest hour of Anthony Weiner's political life -- if not his personal life -- Huma Abedin shoved him into virtual irrelevance.
Huma Abedin catapulted herself into immediate political and personal viability in a matter of moments. In perhaps no more than two minutes, she went from The Good Wife to The Up and Coming Star: Huma 2014.
And, single men out there, she may soon become available.
Perhaps, just perhaps, that was the plan all along.
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