Sen. John McCain Steps Up for Huma Abedin

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 18, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

                Defending specious accusations against Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 36-year-old Dep. Chief of Staff Huma Abedin by former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Sen. John McCain called the attacks “ugly” and “vicious.”  McCain encountered similar paranoia campaigning in 2008 accusing President Barack Obama of being an Islamic terrorist.  Today’s outrageous nonsense by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio about Barack’s fake Hawaiian birth certificate shows there are no lows to extremists advancing political agendas.  Arpaio’s comments are timed to divert attention away from Obama’s attacks on GOP presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finances and role at Bain Capital.  McCain’s spirited defense of former Rep. Anthony Wiener’s (D-N.Y.) Muslim wife reveals his courage and true character.

            Nearly 77-years-of-age, the maverick Arizona senator shows signs of finally getting over his stinging defeat to Barack four years ago.  While there’s little good McCain has said about Obama, he defended the 48-year-old Barack as a patriot when confronted with outrageous accusations.  “The Department’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members—her late father, her mother and her brother—connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and to organizations.  Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy making,” according to a June 13 letter signed by Reps. Bachmann, Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.).  Abedin, who was married to Wiener with Hillary and former President Bill Clinton present July 10, 2010, delivered a baby boy Jordan Zain Wiener Dec. 21, 2011.

            Bachmann’s June 13 letter asks the State Department’s Dep. Inspector General to open up an investigation into Abedin and others for influence-peddling in the U.S. government.  Some recognized terrorists are members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, including al-Qaeda’s current No. 1 terrorist Egyptian-born physician Ayman al-Zawahri.  It’s also true that Egpyt’s newly elected 61-year-old President Mohamed Mosri was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and received his doctorate in political science at the University of Southern California.  Like many Mideast groups, there are humanitarian and unlawful branches.  Affiliation with one group doesn’t mean participation in the other.  Bachmann’s accusations irked McCain because of his personal knowledge of Abedin.  Abedin suffered the indignity June 16, 2011 of watching her husband resign in disgrace from Congress.

            McCain was especially outraged by the suggestion that purely guilt-by-association prompted Bachmann’s gang to accuse Abedin.  Calling Huma a “fine and decent American,” McCain lashed out at Bachmann’s unwarranted accusations, having observed Abedin’s accomplishments in the Senate and State Department.  “These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma’s family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way,” said McCain on the Senate floor.  “These attacks have no logic, no bases, and no merit and they need to stop.  They need to stop now,” showing that McCain had his fill of the kind of GOP paranoia that nearly wrecked the country back in Sen. Joe McCarthy’s (R-Wis.) witch-hunt days on the anti-Communist, Senate Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s.

            Bachmann minimized the letter stating that it simply attempted to bring to the attention of the State Dept., Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, Dept. of Defense and Justice Dept. something to consider.  She insists McCain distorted her intent of just providing information.  Like a five-alarm fire, Bachmann acted like Abedin’s continued State Dept. role presented a clear and present danger to U.S. national security.  McCain acted rightly calling out Bachmann for race-bating because of Abedin’s Pakistani roots.  “To say that the accusations made in both documents are not substantiated by the evidence they offer is to be overly polite and diplomatic about it,” said McCain, pointing fingers at Bachmann for whipping up at Election Year hysteria.  Calling her like a daughter at her wedding, Hillary vouched for Huma’s integrity and patriotism.

                  Bachmann’s Election Year hysteria at the expense of U.S. citizen and State Dept. employee Huma Wiener reveals how low the GOP will go heading into November.  It’s no different than Arpaio’s phony accusations of Obama’s fully vetted Hawaiian birth certificate.  Accusing Huma of loose affiliations with the Muslim Brotherhood stretch national security concerns to the breaking point.  If the House can vote out a contempt citation for Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. for failing to cough up certain documents, they can censure Bachmann for whipping up scurrilous accusations against a State Dept. employee and U.S. citizen.  “It took a lot of work to get to where we are today, but I want people to know we’re a normal family,” Abedin told People Magazine regarding the stress over her husband’s resignation from Congress.  Bachmann’s accusations add insult to injury to loyal American citizen.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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