Dueling Wives: Anthony Weiner's wife Huma vs Prince William's Kate

They're competing for the news here in the States--the long-suffering wife of New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, describing at a press conference the lengthy therapy required to forgive her husband's humiliating sex-texting chutzpah, and the nearly-blushing new mom Kate Middleton who sweetly stepped outside the hospital door, demurely waving to cheering admirers viewing her new-born son for the first time.

They're both captivating, though they offer opposite messages.

Huma Abedin, who chose not to take her husband's last name, delivered her own son last year, while her creepy husband Anthony Weiner repeated the stunt that caused him just a few months earlier to resign from Congress. Vanity Fair called Weiner and Abedin's joint appearance the "most awkward sext-splanatory press conference in human history." Without mentioning what he did, Weiner confessed he'd done it both before and after he resigned, illustrating either that he's a sex addict or can't learn from his own mistakes. Either way, who could vote for someone with that kind of arrogance? He asks for another chance, but wasn't that what he got after the first massive distribution of his nearly-visible sex organ? Then he sends the same type of pix and sexy texts to another 22-year-old he's never met, this time using the skanky nom de plume "Carlos Danger." Again?

We can understand that he's got the world's biggest...ego. But Huma? Doesn't she want to crawl under a rock rather than stand next to the person whose name and trademark body part are one and the same? Yes, she learned how to handle such things, pardon me, from her employer and mentor Hillary Clinton, whose husband's "distinguishing characteristic" is too-well known and whose DNA is displayed on a navy blue dress in the Smithsonian.

That the Weiners believe that Americans can so casually forgive extramarital "just sex" is a

reverberation of our larger redefinition of the institution of marriage. No longer is commitment tied to monogamy; no longer does marriage elevate intimacy to a Godly potential for procreation. The issue for Huma is that Anthony couldn't contain his sexuality; he had to "share" his equipment and flirt, if not actively arrange a tryst, because it was exciting; because he could--and because he chose immediate excitement over long-term commitment. Huma is either stupid, if she thinks this is the last of it, or craves the limelight so much she's willing to look stupid. Either way, she's collecting plenty of derision.

The sweet emergence of Kate and William, both wearing baby-blue, from St. Mary's Hospital with their tiny bundle sent a very different message. Kate's contagious but modest smile and almost embarrassed mini-waves to the crowd granted well-wishers a most subtle, humble and gentle image to remember. Here is a couple whose religious marriage was followed by parenthood, the conventional progression with a result that confirms tradition and continuity. With the monarchy an anachronism, marriage remains the institution that every Brit can experience personally. As the beaming Duke and Duchess of Cambridge introduced their son, (now named George Alexander Louis) every parent recalled the miraculous moment when his or her new life met the world for the first time, renewing that burst of hope and innocence that everyone yearns to protect.

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge

New parenthood is a lifetime commitment, a dedication to the well being of another. New York politics, well, not so much.

We're drawn to the lurid because it lets us feel superior, but we're drawn even more
powerfully to the hopeful because it reminds us of the One who is truly Superior, and that provides the most long-term reassurance of all.