Greg Sargent, who writes terrific insider stuff for the Washington Post, has been writing about the silence of most Congressional Democrats on the controversy over the so-called Ground Zero mosque.
Naturally, Chuck Schumer has no comment. But I'm intrigued with Anthony Weiner who, in July, married a devout Muslim woman who has kept her Islamic faith. (I don't know if he adopted Islam but she has not become Jewish).
In any case, Weiner is married to a Muslim and will have half-Arab Muslim kids. That gives him an extra connection to the mosque controversy. He is the only New York Jewish Member of Congress with a Muslim spouse.
One would think that this rather pugnacious and aggressive brawler would fight for his own family? But somehow he manages to keep silent in the face of the anti-Muslim hatefest that surrounds the mosque controversy.
It's bad enough that he is one of the most vehement Arab and Palestinian bashers in Congress but this is his wife's faith that is under attack. (I'd like to see the very fit Weiner have a chat with that flatulent bigot, Peter King. It will be something he can tell his future kids about. The day dad stood up for them, before they were born).
Frankly, I wonder if Weiner has ever cared about Israel, Judaism, or the Middle East in general. I think he panders so egregiously because he just doesn't give a damn about the whole area. And I admire him for being open-minded enough to marry a devout Muslim without even asking her to convert. And for not caring that so many of his fiercest supporters don't even approve of Jews dating Protestants, let alone Muslims.
I just don't get how he can simply keep his silence about vicious anti-Muslim (i.e. anti-his wife) bigotry in his own city, which he wants to govern as mayor some day. Is he just afraid that if he speaks up, his constituents will discover he is "intermarried"...to a Muslim, no less? Or does Weiner think he can get a pass for marrying a Muslim so long as he keeps publicly hating on them?
All in all, the boy has some 'splainin to do. And what is Mrs. Weiner nee Abedin thinking?