But the Wiener flap turned out to be the lesser of Abedin's concerns.  Recently Congresswoman, former Presidential candidate, and notable Christian, Michele Bachmann, joined with four other Congresspeople in sending a letter to the Inspector General requesting an investigation into the influence of people said to be involved with the Muslin Brotherhood, a militant Muslin organization now very active in Egyptian politics.  The letter claimed that Abedin "has three family members–her late father, her mother and her brother–connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations."

This is highly reminiscent of an episode during the McCarthy Era.  Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator from Wisconsin who made reckless accusations of treason against Americans and was finally ostracized and discredited, dying of alcoholism at the age of 48.  Little recalled now was how powerful McCarthy became -- he was cultivated by both the Kennedy pater familias Joseph Kennedy, who shared McCarthy's anticommunist ardor, and President Dwight Eisenhower.  Eisenhower was known to dislike McCarthy, but required his political support, and he eventually gloated on McCarthy's downfall.

McCarthy was rediscovered in the 2005 George Clooney movie, Good Night, and Good Luck, in which CBS news correspondent Edward R. Murrow eventually took on McCarthy.  First, "Tail Gunner Joe" had begun to be weakened when he attacked the Eisenhower Administration itself, then the U.S. Army, both of which he claimed were rife with hidden communists.  McCarthy's televised hearings of the Army starting in 1953, in which he was seen as a bully and shyster, are generally counted as the beginning of the end for McCarthy. 

In 1953, Tail Gunner Joe attacked an officer with a very unAmerican-sounding name, Milo Radulovich, who was facing expulsion from the Air Force because of his sister's political involvements and because his father subscribed to a Serbian newspaper. Offended by this example of McCarthyism, Murrow then attacked McCarthy on his weekly television show, See It Now.  McCarthy predictably responded by accusing Murrow of being a communist. By 1954, now at odds with Eisenhower, Murrow (America's leading television journalist), and the United States Army, McCarthy's days were numbered.  He was censured by the Senate at the end of 1954, and died less than three years later.

Which returns us to Huma Abedin, her brother and mother, and Milo Radulovich, his sister and father (that damned Serbian newspaper reader).  Oh, and it also leads us to Bo Diddley's 1962 recording, "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," as written by Willie Dixon. Please imagine the Diddley backbeat in here.  Diddley and Dixon were not actually concerned with McCarthy or anything political, but rather with Diddley's -- the song's narrative character's -- sexual prowess.

You can't judge an apple by looking at a tree
You can't judge honey by looking at the bee
You can't judge a daughter by looking at the mother
You can't judge a book by looking at the cover

Oh can't you see, oh you misjudge me
I look like a farmer, but I'm a lover
You can't judge a book by looking at the cover

(Credit to Willie Dixon, "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," under United States Copyright Law, U.S. Code Title 17).

Good night and good luck.

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