Even though Bill and Hillary Clinton had a very public sex scandal when the U.S. president then had a headline-hugging affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, the former first couple rejects any comparison with Ms Clinton's former aide Huma Abedin and her husband, disgraced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.

The couple also chafes at comparisons to forgiveness by the two women to their erring husbands.

"The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging - that Huma is 'standing by her man' the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did," the New York Post quoted a Democrat.

Mr Weiner's mayoral campaign in the Big Apple is at risk because of revelations that his sexting behaviour - including sending selfie pictures of his penis - continued even after he resigned from Congress for his online activities. He even refers to the Clintons' experience to continue to court votes despite his admission of extramarital infidelity.

"The Clintons are pissed off that Weiner's campaign is saying that Huma is just like Hillary ... How dare they compare Huma with Hillary? Hillary was the first lady. Hillary was a senator. She was secretary of state," the politician added.

Ms Abedin served as Ms Clinton's aide and friend for a long time. Her support for Mr Weiner surprised political pundits. The Democrat said that Ms Clinton did not know that her former aide "would do this whole stand-by-your-man routine, and that's one of the reasons the Clintons are distancing themselves from all this nonsense.

The distancing of Ms Clinton from Ms Abedin is seen as protecting her planned candidacy for the presidency in 2016 from being linked with Mr Weiner and contrasts with her previous defence of her aide.

Another difference between the two couples is that Ms Clinton did not show so much public support for her philandering husband then and was rumoured to be planning to separate from him, while Ms Lewinsky became scarce at the height of the scandal. In contrast, 23-year-old Sydney Leathers, one of Mr Weiner's sextmates, is enjoying the attention and profiting from the scandal by having her photos in bikini splashed in New York Post.

Original source: New York Post

Meanwhile, Mr Weiner's stock continues to plummet as a new Quinnipiac University poll said he has slipped to fourth place among seven candidates, while his campaign manager had abandoned him. The survey said only 16 per cent of Democratic primary voters would place his name of their ballot, a 10-point decline from the July 24 poll when he topped the pre-election survey.