Bochinche & Buzz: Weiner-Abedin fallout and the price of pulling rank
Raise your hand if you’ve been able to skip over or ignore the latest installment of sicko Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal. Most folks can't get enough details, and many more are rushing to buy extra popcorn as they watch the former City Council member, congressman, mayoral wannabe and supposedly insightful talking head going off a cliff.
The latest report by the New York Post is that the disgraced sexting fiend viewed his only son as a “chick magnet.” This fact is of great significance since Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, has praised him as being a good father. Some in their inner circle go as far as to say that their son is the only reason she worked at trying to save the marriage.
However, one of the most troubling aspects of this Weiner-Abedin bochinche among some insiders I’ve spoken to is the fate of their 4-year-old child, Jordan.
A recent conversation on the subject got a bit uneasy for me when one political bochinchoso asked: “If the father, who has been the full-time parent, is now considered a danger to the child’s welfare, and the mother is jetting around the U.S. to elect the first female president for the next 70 days, then who will be taking care of their son?”
This person posed an uncomfortable question: “Has Hillary done the right thing and told Huma to stay home for her son’s sake?”
Really?
I ran this by some other bochinchosos, who opined that Huma had to decide what’s more important: Being in the circle of trust to the possible first female POTUS or being a mother.
Really?
If these bizarre comments get you bent out of shape, there’s more where that came from. Three other women I spoke to separately about this went deeper into things like the couple’s likely nonexistent intimacy. One female colega expressed some ingrained sexist logic using a Spanish idiom: “El que tenga tienda, que la atienda. Si no, que la venda.” (Translation: If you have a store, take care of it or someone else will.) In other words, Huma bears some blame for not satisfying her husband’s out-of-control sexual impulses.
This is what happens when the private life of politicians spills out – we all turn into armchair psychologists and relationship therapists. It’s not a healthy discourse
In the meantime, the most important question is: What happens to Jordan? Will the New York City Administration for Children’s Services investigate Weiner’s actions? Will other government agencies – including the NYPD – determine that the father acted against his son’s welfare and proceed accordingly to remove the child from both parents?
It’s a sad story that goes beyond the Weiner-Abedin novella.
Coming to Albany: a conservative Democratic caucus in the state Senate?
“That's my candidate,” is the way state Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. responded when I asked who he was supporting in the Democratic primary race in the 31st Senate District. The never shy and frequently polemic Bronx conservative Democrat went on to say, “Gustavo (Rivera) has always been disrespectful as a colleague.”
Díaz ranted about the many ways his Senate colleague would openly mock him about his pronouncements and positions on the more controversial issues in the senate. He called Rivera, who is being challenged by term-limited City Councilman Fernando Cabrera, the “do-nothing senator.”
What I pieced together after the conversation is that if Cabrera defeats Rivera in the primary – which, in the overwhelmingly Democratic Bronx would be equivalent to winning the general election – it would give the Senate Democrats three conservative members, including Sen. Simcha Felder (17th SD in Brooklyn), a conservative, but one who is transparently transactional – hence his caucusing with Republicans.
Díaz wouldn’t confirm or deny if that’s what been discussed. He just laughed.
Next time pay the fine, Vanessa
Two members of the New York City Council are salivating in anticipation of an investigation and more headlines about Vanessa Gibson’s ticket-fixing incident dating back to March 2014. The incident, first reported by the Daily News, involved a summons for talking on her mobile phone while driving and then calling brass at NYPD to prevent the officer from issuing the ticket.
The bochinche inside the municipal chamber is that that there are already some people talking to the Conflicts of Interest Board about Gibson, who leads the Council’s Public Safety Committee.
One of my sources indicated that the incident is unlikely to go away without an investigation. “It won’t matter if the Speaker protects Vanessa. This is going to be heard by the Standards and Ethics Committee.”
Don’t forget, it’s all buzz and bochinche until the real story is told.