Mrs. Weiner's Pregnancy Reads Like A Broadway Play

Yesterday we got the big announcement that Representative Anthony Weiner and his wife are expecting their first child. The scenario of a disgraced politician about to be forced from office, and his wife announcing her pregnancy at the nick of time, seemed so very familiar. Then I remembered the origin of that familiar feeling.

Some of you may remember a story posted here last November about one of my favorite Broadway plays of all time, “Of Thee I Sing.” The resolution of the play is very similar to yesterday’s pregnancy announcement.

“Of Thee I Sing,” a musical that first appeared on Broadway almost seventy years ago and one of the most biting political satires ever written. In fact, “Of Thee I Sing“ was the first successful American musical with a consistently satiric tone. The writers and the cast were unsure of what the public’s reception would be, prompting one of the writers of the book, George S. Kaufman, to quip: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.”

Written at the beginning of the great depression, “Of Thee I Sing” lampoons a political system too tied up in personalities and silly little issues to fix the country’s economy. (sound familiar?). It was the first musical ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

The play tells the story of presidential candidate John P. Wintergreen, “he’s the man the people choose, loves the Irish and the Jews.” For Vice President the choice is Alexander Throttlebottom, who throughout the play keeps trying to get into meetings and rallies, but gets thrown out because no one knows who he is.

In the second act, after being elected President, Wintergreen is facing impeachment (if you want to know why read the original post here). Just as the Senate is going through its roll call, in bursts the First Lady who announces she’s expecting. Since no expecting President has ever been impeached the impeachment is called off.

Huma Abedi’s pregnancy is most probably legitimate (in the play, Mary Wintergreen was legitimately pregnant). But the announcement made to the NY Times last night was conveniently leaked to the progressive paper just as momentum was building from Weiner’s own party.

During the past Presidential election season, progressives made the unfair accusation that Sarah Palin was using her children as a prop on campaign stops. According to progressive pundits, this gave them a free pass to go after the Governor’s children.

Unlike the progressive scenario regarding Governor Palin, the Abedi’s pregnancy seems like an actual attempt to use her “delicate situation,” in an attempt to gain sympathy for the Congressman’s effort to hang on to his House seat, in face of his growing scandal.

I guarantee you that there will be no pundit attacks on Wiener’s family, in anyway similar to the unfair attacks on the Palins. There will also be no questioning of the NY Times who allowed its name to be exploited by Weiner’s staff in their not so cloaked effort to save their bosses job.