by ALAN DUKE
US First Lady and New York Senate candidate Hillary Clinton (C) carries flowers and is led by an unidentified Andrews Air Force Base Protocol Officer (R) while her personal aide Huma Abedin carries a bag and a stack of New York newspapers 06 May 2000 after returning from New York to meet up with her husband, President Bill Clinton at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. IMAGE/Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty/HP
When Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted Monday to sending inappropriate messages and photos “of an explicit nature” to women online, his wife of 11 months was not standing at his side. Huma Abedin was with another politician, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Abedin, 34, began working for Clinton as a White House intern in 1996, eventually becoming the former first lady’s traveling chief of staff — or “body man” — during her campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Her popularity among movers and shakers in the Democratic Party should have been an asset for Weiner’s future.
However, now that she is the victim of the congressman’s indiscretion, “… the Democrats are furious at this guy,” Democratic insider James Carville told CNN Monday. “He is married to one of the most popular people in the Democratic Party.”
Although she is described as a very private person, Abedin’s intelligence, striking style, unusual background and ability “to make the trains run on time,” brought her attention well before last summer’s marriage to Weiner.
Vogue magazine profiled her in 2007, an unusual distinction for a campaign aide.
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