For Weiner's Seat: How About His Wife?

Who better to take over Anthony Weiner’s congressional seat than the wife he betrayed? As a top aide to Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin is a political force, writes Ann Friedman for Good: Time last year called her a “rising star of American politics.” What’s more, she’s seen a parallel situation unfold. She was an intern amid scandal in the Bill Clinton White House before joining Hillary’s staff, and has watched Hillary soar ever since.

“Many pioneering women in American politics were elected after their politician husbands died,” Friedman notes. “But what of a woman who picks herself up and reasserts herself in the public eye after her husband makes some adolescent mistake that compels him to resign?” Women would likely rally around Abedin, who has “the expertise, the connections, and the moral high ground to succeed.” And according to James Carville, she's "one of the most popular people in the Democratic Party." But the New York Times notes that whoever gets Weiner’s seat may be an automatic lame duck: The state is due to lose two House seats as a result of 2010 census figures, and Weiner's could be one of them. (More Huma Abedin stories.)