WashPost Hypes John McCain's Role In Anthony Weiner Rehab on Page One

July 19th, 2012 11:22 AM

The Anthony Weiner political rehab effort is in full force on the front page of today’s Washington Post. On page C-2, the Post gossips proclaimed “He’s back!” – from a “weird, weird fall from grace.” The Post touts a People magazine article in which his wife Huma Abedin claims “Anthony has spent every day since then trying to be the best dad and husband he can be.”

But they really lunged to Mrs. Weiner’s defense on Page One, mysteriously making a mountain out of one molehill speech to an empty Senate chamber. Post reporter Ed O’Keefe found McCain took on the conservative “fringe voices” in the GOP who had a Muslim-conspiracy theory about the Tweet-cheated spouse:

Around noon, a somber McCain rose in her defense — not just to support a friend but also to take on fringe voices in his own party. It was a familiar role for McCain, who built a reputation as a maverick with a willingness to criticize what he believes are radical views within his party.

O’Keefe acknowledged the Post was inflating this event with its own sense of importance: “There was little immediate reaction to the 7.5-minute speech in the otherwise empty Senate chamber, but the attention of Capitol Hill quickly shifted to the House, where lawmakers were taking up a bill about looming defense spending cuts.”

McCain spoke out against a letter sent a month ago to the State Department by conservative Rep. Michelle Bachman and four other conservatives raising questions about Abedin family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood based on a report by the Center for Security Policy. The letter includes claims about Abedin's family in a larger laundry list of alleged State Department soft-headedness.

One might wonder why an ardent Sharia-imposing Muslim Brotherhood activist would confuse the world by marrying a prominent sexualized, I mean, secularized Jewish liberal.

Here’s where the Weiner rehab becomes obvious: the CSP report's key findings are much harsher about the alleged Islamic activism of conservative activist Grover Norquist, but John McCain didn’t rise to defend Norquist. Even if he had, he certainly wouldn’t have made the front page of the WashPost. You have to defend top Hillary Clinton aides-slash-liberal Democrat spouses to get that kind of splash.