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Disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner and his very supportive wife Huma Abedin get a splashy cover profile in this weekend's The New York Times Magazine that basically uses 8,300 words to say one brief thing: He's going to run for office again.

The story, headlined as the couple's "Post-Scandal Playbook," is basically the first step in Weiner's comeback playbook. He openly admits that he's "eyeing the mayor's race," has hired polling firms to gauge his chances, and is blatantly "testing the water" for a return to politics. Most importantly, it shows that his wife—a savvy political operative herself—is standing right behind him. That's an important fact to communicate when the reason you're not in politics is a humiliating sex scandal which occured while your wife was pregnant.

While hedging his bets slightly on a run—he has until June to formally declare—Weiner announces to writer Jonathan Van Meter that "I want to ask people to give me a second chance." And his own internal polling has suggested to him that many of them will. Obviously, there's still a chance that he can "drop out" before he actually gets in, but this major media rehabilitation push is clearly where Weiner's mayoral campaign will actually begin.

There's also the underlying message that family life, and his resignation, have humbled him. After all, it's hard to get a more winning endorsement than the one given by his very own brother:

"I wouldn’t stand for other people saying this about him, but there was definitely a douchiness about him that I just don’t really see anymore."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.