Joe Hagan at New York magazine has just published a 6,000-word campaign ad for profile of Hillary Clinton, exploring the question everybody’s asking: Why won’t she just go away?
Only joking, of course. It’s about her inevitable campaign for president in 2016. Yay! It’s tl;dr, but it’s worth scrolling down to this part about what Hagan calls “Clintonworld”:
The biggest question among Hillary’s circle concerns Huma Abedin, currently chief of Hillary’s “transition office” and formerly her deputy chief of staff in the State Department. Abedin began as an intern for the First Lady in 1996, when she was 20 years old, and is, of course, married to former congressman and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, of sexting infamy.
In the midst of her husband’s scandal, Abedin stepped down from her full-time job for a consulting contract and moved back to New York to take work with Teneo Holdings, a consulting firm and investment bank run by Bill Clinton’s longtime consigliere, Doug Band. This gave Hillary cover while also keeping Abedin plugged in. “It’s business as usual,” says a Clinton insider…
But business as usual can be a giant target for enemies: Abedin has since become the subject of an inquiry, by a Republican congressman, into her dual consulting roles, looking for potential conflicts of interest while she served in a sensitive role in the administration. Then came a second episode of Weiner’s sexting this summer, blindsiding the Clintons, obliterating Weiner’s mayoral ambitions, and greatly complicating Abedin’s future with the Clintons. With Weiner’s ignominious loss and parting bird-flip, “Huma has a choice to make,” says a close associate of hers. “Does she go with Anthony, or does she go with Hillary?”
That’s quite a conundrum. Stay with the man who has repeatedly humiliated himself, and her, in front of the whole world, and no doubt will do so again if given the chance? Or dump the dong-tweetin’ loudmouth jackass she was dumb enough to marry, and possibly have lots of power and stuff?
I don’t envy the tough choice she faces. At times like this, sometimes we can find solace in the glorious power of music:
Sometimes not.
(Hat tip: The Paper of Weiner Record)