MSNBC is reporting that David Petraeus is resigning because of an extramarital affair, which basically confirms what we all knew anyway. He really is a Republican, aka the Family Values party.
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MSNBC is reporting that David Petraeus is resigning because of an extramarital affair, which basically confirms what we all knew anyway. He really is a Republican, aka the Family Values party.
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John Dillinger
Some one needs to link to rightwing blog posts where they fantasize about him being Romney’s running mate, or older ones about him quitting and running for President.
Dexter
So I guess no Petraeus for President in future.
FormerSwingVoter
Well, at least we get to make penis jokes.
Roger Moore
I don’t know John. If he were a True Republican(TM), an extramarital affair would be an added qualification, not a problem.
Raven
I wonder if it was the woman who wrote the book about him. She luvvved him to deaf.
Punchy
Deadthreaded, so I’ll ask it again. Any confo that this affair was with a woman or a man?
Who gets the CIA gig now? Does the Senate have to approve of his appointment?
Bulworth
Must be Obama’s fault.
schrodinger's cat
With a man or a woman?
Gindy51
I always called him Betrayus, now we know he not only betrayed us but he also betrays his wife.
freelancer
As BGinCHI said below:
Tick tock.
danimal
Petraeus is popular enough to survive an extramarital affair, especially since his right flank is covered.
So what is it: dead girl or live boy? Double wetsuit and dildo? Hilary? Inquiring minds need to know…
MattF
I guess fluffing from the WaPo isn’t real enough:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/the-impact-of-gen-david-petraeus-in-four-takes/2011/08/30/gIQAEc0urJ_blog.html
Raven
I want HIM to answer for Benghazi.
General Stuck
That’s okay. Baby Jeevus will be along shortly to bless his patriotic pecker, the wingnut preachers will declare him saved, and Aunt Millie Whitehead will touch herself with bliss of the holy spirit.
BarbCat
Isn’t he testifying on The Hill next week, about THE BIGGEST SCANDAL SINCE WATERGATE?
Also (too) I’m starting to think the right’s continued intractability should be labeled ‘impotence’. It’s just a damn fine metaphor for all the red-faced ineffectual bluster I’ve been witness to since Tuesday night.
Bulworth
See what all those gay marriage votes did?
Raven
Chuck Todd, “The CIA was acting like the CYA”!
Face
@freelancer: Wingtards turning on Betrayus would be a sight to see. This guy was full on gold-plated Republican Man for years. If they tried to tar and feather him over fake controversies…wow.
David Koch
Please proceed, General
J.W. Hamner
Am I the only one to think it’s dumb that he’s resigning for an affair?
joes527
@Dexter: It didn’t hurt saint Ronnie. Though I suppose the unforgivable sin isn’t doing the deed, but acknowledging it in public, so maybe that’s a bad example.
The Moar You Know
I am not sure how you can put a guy in charge of the CIA and not have this be known from the get-go. Did they not vet him? Or is that only for black people?
Alison
This just seems…weird. I mean, not that I think affairs are great things, but I guess I’m surprised that having one would mean he’d have to step down. I have to think there are more damning elements to the story?? Or am I just not moral enough? Trust me, I don’t like cheaters, but even still…
Hill Dweller
@danimal:
No way. Petraeus could survive if he was a run of the mill politician, but having an affair while running an intelligence agency is a cardinal sin. No way he recovers from such a monumental lapse in judgement.
Raven
So, Jake Tapper just wanted to know exactly what the President was doing during the raid. What was the head of the motherfucking CIA doing?
Dork
If he cant keep the sly sexytime on the down low and he works in the goddamn CIA, maybe he’s not the best guy to have at the helm.
MattF
@Alison: Well, having a CIA director who could be blackmailed… That’s a bad thing.
LanceThruster
David Petraeus is resigning in order to spend more time ignoring his family.
lamh35
Wow. I would seriously look into whether or not Obama had some damn angels on his shoulders.
Not to speculate, but what if it was a man???? Isn’t that the usual for Repubs to “suddenly” quit!
schrodinger's cat
@Raven: Sleeping with the Enemy.
freelancer
@Face:
Well I personally think they’re going to keep the Benghazi story going by saying the Obama Administration is using this affair to make a scapegoat of Petraeus to try to end discussion and shut the alleged “cover up” down.
“Obama fires honorable Gen. Petraeus, blames him for Benghazi-gate, allows him to step down for ‘family reasons’. What a monster!”
Alexandra
Digby was convinced for years that Petraeus was the next GOP saviour.
Oh well.
WWStBreitbartD
So a extramarital affair basically confirms He really is a Republican, aka the Family Values party.
Must be news to Democratic icons Bill Clinton, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer.
chopper
@J.W. Hamner:
why? pretty clear violation of military regs.
Chris
I apologize for the conspiracy theorizing, but am I the only one who finds the timing of this weird, along with the fact that he would actually RESIGN because of an affair (plenty of people have had affairs and survived, Clinton among them, and this isn’t even an elected position)?
General Stuck
In other news, I see where the Romney camp is now pointing the fickle finger of blame toward the Newtster for running his mouth about Romney in the primary.
But they will never get to the real reason, being the black guy kicked their motherfuckin’ asses.
Raven
@Alison: Not in the spy biz.
chopper
I mean, CIA ain’t exactly the military and all but still.
Raven
@Chris: Don’t know much about the intelligence business do you?
Comrade Dread
He’ll only be a real Republican if the object of his affection is a man.
But yeah, the political transgression isn’t the affair, it’s having an affair while you’re head of the CIA. Big no-no doing anything that can be used to blackmail you.
Chris
@chopper:
But he’s not still in the military. Is he? The CIA was deliberately designed to be a civilian agency separate from DOD.
Fluke bucket
@General Stuck: sweet sweet Aunt Millie. I love it when she shows up
gex
@J.W. Hamner: No. You aren’t the only one.
However, I’m not going to cry for him when he is of the party that makes people’s private lives political issues. No need to unilaterally disarm. If Rethugs have to live by their own principles rather than inflicting them on others, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
ETA: Once it’s public, it can’t be used for blackmail, so the problem with him having an affair ceases to be a problem.
WWStBreitbartD
@chopper:
Reality based community
geg6
@Alison:
Um, he’s the head of the CIA. You can’t have these sorts of secrets as the head of the intelligence agency. Cardinal sin.
JPL
As long as the affair was not with a democrat, it’s okay. He is a proud family man.
Chris
@Raven:
You’re only blackmailable if your dirty secrets stay secret, aren’t you?
J.W. Hamner
@chopper:
Who cares? CIA isn’t the military. Plus, he just admitted the affair, so how can he be blackmailed for it? I mean, unless it was with goats or whatever.
tulip
I’m confused like some others above. Trust me I don’t approve of affairs, but why resign? Was the person he was having the affair with a risk to national security or something?
Other than being a douchy thing to do, I don’t get why he has to resign.
I know I must be missing something here.
BarbCat
Halperin (on MSNBC) just said, “This is a case where the facts are going to matter a lot.”
elftx
Could be what Hill Dweller said that he would never survive this lapse in judgement, but I admit to being pretty suspicious about this, it almost seems too easy.
The undercurrent of the glenn beck types have been insinuating the cia was selling arms to our enemies..ok my first thought was are they trying to pull a reverse iran contra…and do they realize who the hell they are accusing since they all luvved them some Petraeus in the past.
General Stuck
@Chris:
Military code and all. Though he is retired, field grade officers actually never retire from the code. Specially a former boy wonder general running the CIA.
elisabeth
So POTUS sat on this until after the election? Impeach!!1!11!!!
Culture of Truth
Obama planned all this just to make Sean Hannity’s head explode.
Raven
Jesus, what a bunch of dumbasses. It’s like being on a wingnut blog.
geg6
@Chris:
It’s also a given that you don’t do anything that you can be blackmailed over. And that’s for agents and spies, too, not just the head man.
scav
Well, wouldn’t want things to get dull, and perhaps some hope chatter about this is better than more days highlighting losses and embarrassing reactions to same, not to mention incompetence that lead to . . .
It is a far far better thing, et cetera.
antually, it’s probably more a section of the media that will leap on it with loud cries, esp. with the Benghazi afterburners.
reflectionephemeral
Man, I can’t really muster snark for this. The guy was a widely respected four star general, those don’t grow on trees. It seems a real shame for him to go out like this. It’s too early to know for sure, but maybe he just did the right thing here today.
It all seems sad to me.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
As a former Intel Officer, lemme echo what was said above:
You hold a Top Secret security clearance with SCI (Special Compartmented Information) access, you don’t fuck around on the spouse. Period. You can be blackmailed.
It also shows an underlying sense of character of the person holding the clearance.
As such, the head guy of the big spy agency really has no choice but to resign, or submit a resignation letter when asked to resign. And I can guarandamntee you, if he hadn’t submitted a resignation letter, the President would have demanded one.
Alison
@MattF: Oh, I suppose that’s true. Eek.
DPS
@Chris:
So did he admit it the day after it started? How long has his flawed judgment allowed this situation to persist without disclosure?
gex
@BarbCat: Unlike all the other things Halperin reports on.
Culture of Truth
Who cares? CIA isn’t the military. Plus, he just admitted the affair, so how can he be blackmailed for it?
Because it’s an incredible lapse in judgment
Paul
@BarbCat:
Just like Tom Brokaw, he adds absolutely no value.
Alison
@geg6: Okay, yeah, I get it.
Raven
“After being married for more than 37 years I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Petraeus wrote in his letter. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as a leader of an organization such as ours.”
Chris
@geg6:
Yeah, fair enough. If he did it once he might do it again, if he’s hiding this who knows what else he might be hiding… etc.
And I yeah, I knew that for field officers as well as for the head people, if not more so… I guess I’m just so used to an “Official Washington” where no one gets held accountable for anything that I’m shell-shocked to see any guy resigning. Mea culpa.
Culture of Truth
FEMA should send the beltway media grief counselors
aimai
@LanceThruster:
I love you for this.
aimai
elisabeth
Twitter tells me wife works at CFPB.
Ash Can
@General Stuck:
And that their policies suck the farts out of dead pigeons.
Paul
@WWStBreitbartD:
Democrats don’t run as the Family Value party. The GOP does. In spite of that a fair number of their hypocritical candidates have extramarital affairs. Do you see the difference?
Heck, I have lost count of how many Republicans have demonized gays as evil people, yet later are outed as gays themselves.
Chris
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
This is also why homosexuals were considered security risks for so long, I believe. In a society where being gay was the equivalent of leprosy even more so than being a cheater, heck of a thing to blackmail someone with.
Dan
Cocktober surprise
J.W. Hamner
@Culture of Truth:
Bill Clinton had (at least) one lapse in judgement as well and I didn’t think he should resign either.
MikeBoyScout
Look, people can do whatever they want with their sexy time as far as I’m concerned, but how f*cking stupid do you need to be to be a public figure leading a spy bureau to do this sh*t?
As Atrios often says, we are ruled by idiots.
General Stuck
@elisabeth:
That should get the wingnuts in a conspiracy froth, as they consider that place run by Marxist stooges to begin with. All of them under the Obama umbrella of death.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@danimal: I’m gonna go with “Mata Hari.”
BGinCHI
Word on the street is that Valerie Plame is the shoe-in for next CIA director.
By street I mean this post.
The Moar You Know
@Raven: Couldn’t agree more. The only guy who’s even got it halfway right here is a few posts up saying “I must be missing something”
That is correct. You are “missing something”. You’ll find out what it is in due course.
Violet
@freelancer:
Was in the car and listening to Hannity’s show for the meltdown entertainment. There’s a substitute host today, but he went right to it. First thing.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@General Stuck: +1 for the Laugh In reference.
YoohooCthulhu
D/CIA isn’t just a political position, it also requires very high security clearance. Carrying on an affair is a massive security risk due to the risk of blackmail. That’s presumably why he got out in front of this thing. Working in intelligence requires you to live the most boring personal life possible; anything more than that is grounds for dismissal. He’s only holding himself to the same standards as other CIA employees.
Raven
@The Moar You Know: I posted it on Lang’s site, I can’t wait till he gets wound up on the King of COIN!
Soonergrunt
Plenty of Democrats have had extramarital affairs. The tell that he’s a Republican would be if it involved diapers or airport mens room stalls.
elisabeth
@General Stuck:
And Warren hasn’t even gotten her office yet! Imagine what destruction can be wrought once she’s prepared.
Culture of Truth
This time apparently the surge did not work.
Chris
Also, with him and McChrystal gone, that’s two of the biggest architects of our post-Rumsfeld Iraq and Afghanistan strategies no longer with us, I believe. Huh.
Culture of Truth
He shouldn’t quit for having an affair. He should quit for failing to keep it a secret.
Robin G.
Dammit! Now I’ll never again get to sing “Dave Petraeus Dave Patraeus!” to the tune of The Simpsons’ “Doctor Zaius.” All is despair.
Raven
@Culture of Truth: DING!
BarbCat
@Dan: Vuvlember just doesn’t have the same ring, does it?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@tulip: The confusion stems from a lack of understanding that the intelligence biz is different. An affair is a career killer there. I thought stuckinred explained that about 17 times already. And comrade scott’s agenda outlined all the reasoning for that in detail. Was this all typed in invisible pixels?
Someguy
Now that he’s resigned, I guess the president can’t tell him what to say when he testifies about Benghazi next week.
elftx
thanks to those pointing out the obvious to my silly suspicions..maybe it’s the timing that has me on guard…blackmail..makes a lot of sense..duh!
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
@MattF: Have a CIA director who is being intimate with someone who has no security clearance is a really bad thing. How many times have Russians used hot women to get dumb and horny Americans to breach security?
MomSense
The people who are saying that now that it is out he can’t be blackmailed are missing the obvious.
He may have had no intention of outing this. I would bet that it was outed for him.
Raven
@Someguy: Shit rolls downhill now doesn’t it asshole?
Culture of Truth
@J.W. Hamner: Ok. Hey maybe Petaeus did somethign really wrong wrt Libya and asked the President to let resign this way. But I’m sure of this – the general is not some naif who is being publicly humiliated for no reason.
BGinCHI
@Violet: I didn’t have to think very hard about that one.
This is why Issa trolls, cuz occasionally you accidentally hook something.
What worries me most is the the CIA can’t even cover up its own messes. How the hell are we going to topple legitimate governments around the world if we can’t even get this shit right?
Chyron HR
@Robin G.:
“Can I bring peace to Afghanistan anymore?”
“Of course you can!”
“Well, I couldn’t before!”
Keith G
@Raven:
Welcome to the dark side, Luke.
BGinCHI
@Culture of Truth: Win.
Waiting for a Bud Lime reference.
shortstop
@Raven: OMG! It was with his mother?!
BGinCHI
@Enhanced Mooching Techniques: That would totally work on me.
Skippy-san
So what if he had an affair? Who he sleeps with is is own business. He knew how to do is job which is all I care about.
Raven
@BGinCHI: The incredible heat and moisture seeking missile strikes again! You remember what Randall P McMurphy said?
tulip
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I get it. My post actually was before all the CIA is different/blackmail explanations had posted.
And again I must be missing a piece of the puzzle, I’m not sure who stuckinred is, not that it really matters a lot of folks explained the blackmail angle.
Was this all typed in invisible pixels? Uh no…
Culture of Truth
First the Secret Service, and now this.
Obama wins reelection and gets this on his desk. You see the shit the man has to deal with every damn day?
Raven
@tulip: me
MikeBoyScout
@Culture of Truth:
As you so often have in the past, you win all the internets again today!
GregB
I have already seen this cited as part of the Benghazi cover-up.
It doesn’t take Wingnuittistan long.
Raven
Anybody ever hear of Christine Keeler?
Argive
@J.W. Hamner:
When you run an intelligence agency, engaging in extramarital affairs shows very poor judgment. In such a situation, the danger that your paramour is leading you into a honey trap is quite real. Spies having sex with each other has proven a remarkably successful way of gathering intelligence in the past.
BGinCHI
@Raven: Get your hand up there Chief?
shortstop
@MomSense: Exactly. And some blackmail may already have successfully taken place.
geg6
@Skippy-san:
Apparently not, since he had an affair. You don’t seem to understand that the spy game is different from all the other games in town.
trollhattan
This is good news for John McCain.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Raven: You’ll always be stuckinred to me, man.
Culture of Truth
What if he was having an affair with Ben Gazarra? Granted, that’s a long shot, but still.
Raven
@BGinCHI: She was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc scroll down, I can’t repeat it here lest I be scorned.
BruceFromOhio
@Raven: Easy there, commander. Wingers ain’t trainable, and will perform acrobatics to avoid facts. @comrade scott’s agenda of rage nails it, and now a bunch of us dumbasses go, “ohhh, uh huh, hadn’t thought of that” and “now it makes sense.”
geg6
@Raven:
They are all too young. John Profumo, now there’s a blast from the past.
Raven
@geg6: Scandal with Bridgette Fonda is really good. Pick it up grasshoppers.
KXB
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Wow, demanding accountability for one’s actions. Note – when George Tenet was head of CIA, he got a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his slam dunk intelligence on Iraqi WMD.
OTOH – By most accounts Petraeus was doing a good job at CIA, and stayed out of the press unlike his predecessor Leon Panetta, who seemed to love TV cameras. Different president – different rules.
Raven
@BruceFromOhio: I sorry.
the Conster
Why do we care what wingnuts think about anything, except for the lulz? Weren’t they all just de-nutted on Tuesday?
shortstop
@geg6: I’m too young, but like a lot of (most) people here, I read a lot.
Raven
The Supremes are taking on the voting rights act again. That’s something worth yakking about.
Trumandem
With all the hand wringing above by the entire right and left sptectum I can only surmise that somewhere the ghost of Kay Summersby is sitting and wondering what all the fuss is about. I mean really. But there is something delicious in the fact that once again the holier than thou but okay for thee brigades gets hoisted on their own high moral petard. And besides Petaeus always seemed to have that smugness that goes with hubris whenever I observed him in public discourse. Once again this is yet another one of those, “you just can’t make this stuff up, can you?” moments. It doesn’t get any better than this does it?
J.W. Hamner
@Argive:
As I said, the same poor judgement/black mail/security breach arguments could be used for POTUS having an affair, so if you think Patreus should resign then it seems you should think the same about Bill Clinton with Lewinsky. Maybe everybody here does think that, but I doubt it.
It’s not like I really like Patreus or think we’ll be crippled without him, but I’m not a fan of scarlet letters no matter what the job.
shortstop
Speaking of too young, though, I had to explain to a child today where the melody line from “U Can’t Touch This” comes from. Which was weird, because the kid was too young to personally remember Hammer [ETA: early Hammer, I mean] as well as James. But I heartily approve “Can’t Touch This” as the slogan for the week. Suck it, repubs!
mai naem
USSC just accepted a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. I knew Roberts has something up his sleeve when he salvaged Obamacare. Scalia, Scalito, Thomas and Roberts’ heads probably exploded when Obama won so now they have to get their fingers in to screw voters. Jeebus, I really want to say something but I don’t want to sound like Ann Coulter.
YoohooCthulhu
@Argive:
This is also why Mormons have proven incredibly useful as intelligence officers in the US. Their general boring personal lives and demeanor makes them excellent spies with very little external leverage.
cmorenc
Petraeus deciding that his extramarital affair was reason to submit his resignation indicates one or more of four things:
1) He has a very old-fashioned sense of honor;
2) His wife demanded he reallocate his time and attention to her to repair the relationship, OR ELSE;
3) He was concerned the affair put him in at least the appearance of being vulnerable to compromising CIA secrets and operations;
4) There was something awkwardly kinky about the extramarital relationship beyond just the fact of itself, perhaps even recorded on video somewhere. Dildos, spanking, water sports? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
chopper
lol. yesterday everyone’s all ‘keep the boot on the GOP’s neck!’ and now one of the gooper golden boys maybe queuing up to run in 2016 gets caught in an affair and we’re all ‘I don’t see what the problem is here’.
The Moar You Know
@Raven: Lang has probably cracked a couple of ribs from laughing his ass off.
He’s been saying all along the guy wasn’t fit for the job – any of them – and he has now been proven right beyond his wildest dreams.
Brachiator
@Comrade Dread:
Is there anything more than this? I can’t see an affair being much of a honey trap in 2012. Embarasment I can see. Depths of shame and a serious blackmail threat? No.
And maybe archaic military traditions concerning adultery need to be reviewed as well.
@Chris:
Well, not quite. Adultery is and was, I guess, a moral lapse. Performing “homosexual acts” was illegal. And being gay was considered to be defective in all kinds of ways. This ups the ante with respect to discovery, apart from any soap opera blackmail threat.
Chris
@BruceFromOhio:
Exactly. Give us some credit! If I were a wingnut, I’d already have exploded in rage at how smug and elitist it is that he’s relying on liberally biased “facts” to disprove my suspicions and accused him of being in on the conspiracy/cover-up.
geg6
@shortstop:
I’m sure that not all the younger crowd here are ignorant of the Profumo Affair. And I expect a few of them may even have seen Scandal, as Raven recommends (and I agree that it’s a pretty good film). But the vast majority probably haven’t. For one, it’s a British scandal and not an American one, so it’s not like it’s a famous thing that anyone would know immediately on this side of the pond. And for another, it really did happen quite a long time ago, so people who weren’t alive aren’t likely to have heard of it the way Raven and I have.
Anyway, for those interested, here’s a Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_Affair
trollhattan
@Culture of Truth:
That would make a good subplot in a Cassavetes flick.
shortstop
@cmorenc: 5) He was outed and his resignation was demanded.
I would not assume this was his choice in any way.
BruceFromOhio
@Raven: It’s cool, fear not. Cuz now I can say to my winger relatives, “jeebus, you are a bunch of dumbasses, here’s why he resigned….” and it shuts the bullshit down right quick.
*AND* I sound ike I know what I’m talking about. It’s a win-win! =)
ps Thought stuck and raven were different entities, whence the rebranding?
Ash Can
If Petraeus is stupid enough to have an affair while holding his level of security clearance, then thank goodness he’s out of there.
eemom
Goddammit, it’s his personal business and not ours and I’m sick and tired of all these great heroes of The People being brought down because of their private business about where they stuck their dicks which is nobody else’s business and —
oh, wait — this is not a thread about John Edwards or Eliot Spitzer? NM.
Soonergrunt
@geg6:
@Raven: Does Wikipedia work well enough? Cause I ain’t sayin that it’s from a line in that Billy Joel song. You’d have to slap me.
Bill E Pilgrim
They probably told him he was in charge of clandestine affairs and he took it the wrong way.
shortstop
@geg6: This blog is full of political geeks. I think most people here are probably well versed in this one.
geg6
@Brachiator:
Again, read the Wiki link I posted on Profumo. It’s not just blackmail, it’s pillow talk, too. It simply isn’t done in the spy business. It just isn’t. Makes it way too easy for the wrong people to get the right information, right from the top of the heap, no less.
Suffern ACE
@KXB:
Can you name one area where things have improved since Panetta went to Defense and Petraeus went to the CIA? I am having a very tough time thinking of any. But honestly, I wish Panetta was the one having the affair so we could be done with him.
Culture of Truth
There was a 60 Minutes piece about how he never slept and ran a marathon every day that practically put him on Mount Rushmore.
Personally I didn’t dislike Petraeus, I just think it’s interesting in retrospect. Back then, he reminded me of Lance Amstrong. Intense, impressed with himself, wound really tight.
geg6
@shortstop:
I’m not seeing any evidence of that, really. So good on you for being an exception.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Raven: Oh that is a good movie. Notable in cinematic history by virtue of being the only time that “Bridget Fonda” and “that was a good movie” would appear in the same sentence.
Bobby Thomson
@J.W. Hamner:
No. Only relevant if it could be used to blackmail, and he publicly disclosed it. He wasn’t obligated to do that and could have just resigned in a way that led to ZOMG! Hillary killed
Vince FosterAmbassador Stevens! speculation. I don’t see the need to kick him while he’s down.jibeaux
@J.W. Hamner: No.
Hungry Joe
@J.W. Hamner:
.
Goats can blackmail? Cool!
Maude
@Ash Can:
70
Aw, come on, I’m drinking coffee. Stop it.
shortstop
Speaking of loose lips sinking dips, I don’t think Dick Morris has been sufficiently humiliated yet this week. If I knew where he’d be hanging out this weekend, I’d journey there and personally torment him about Romney’s 300-plus EVs.
Someguy
@Raven: Raven – you’re a dipshit. I was just pointing out that if the probable Republican Petraeus wants to stick it to Obama next week and just make up whatever shit he wants to about Benghazi, he can now with no career repercussions.
SO you start the name calling. Hilarious. You assume a lot of shit that isn’t in evidence.
Violet
@cmorenc: @shortstop:
6. The person he had an affair with tried to blackmail him. Rather than give up the intel, he outed himself.
aimai
@YoohooCthulhu:
Is this a joke? The entire CIA explanation for why we didn’t have good intel for 9/11 was that the CIA had too many mormon looking white guys to infiltrate any kind of non US terrorist group. Plus: anyone who thinks Mormons don’t have extramarital sex or are gay or have other “blackmailable” issues has not been paying attention
aimai
Bill E Pilgrim
@Alison: Danger lies down that path. Fox News is circling like sharks, convinced but unable to come right out and say that Obama forced him out because Benghazi. FOX just read a statement from Petraeus that someone they know got and the message to them was “Tell the truth. No one pressured me, it’s the affair, nothing else”.
shortstop
@Maude: I know! I love how Ash Can writes all these thoughtful, erudite, highly perceptive comments, then occasionally punctuates her offerings with succinct, dead-on raunchiness like that. I’m a fan.
Culture of Truth
I’m not saying he should have to resign, just gave one reason.
However, if this is grounds to be fired for a regular CIA employee, and I expect it might be, then unlike a Governor or Senator or even a President he would have to quit, wouldn’t he.
freelancer
@Bill E Pilgrim:
[snort]
mai naem
I hope somebody asks Michelle Bachman her opinion since she’s on the House Intelligence Committee(no,really she is.) Also too Pete King, the Anti-Muslim Crusader.
Maybe Obama can offer the job to Ben Chandler who I know nothing about other than he was a crappy blue dawg, he lost his seat and he was on the House Intel Committee. Or Wesley Clark but I got the feeling Obama doesn’t like Clark. Or Jim Webb. I have no clue to these people’s qualifications beyond the common biography stuff we all know.
KXB
@Suffern ACE:
Well, I’ll admit that I am not a fan of Panetta at defense. Whereas Gates said that the defense budget lost all connection to reality, Panetta seemed to jump out in front warning about the dangers of even modest cuts.
jibeaux
It occurred to me that why didn’t he just confess to the administration, say I’m telling you because of threat of blackmail, I want you to know, and I can’t be blackmailed because if it comes to that I will make it public myself. But then it occurred to me that maybe he did exactly that and Obama asked for his resignation.
penpen
@Bill E Pilgrim: Jackie Brown
J R in WV
@Skippy-san:
Come on, he couldn’t keep an affair secret? How could he keep the real secreets secret? Like the bubble-gum bomb project, and the Slovakian Space Needle elevator? And the Snark project?
If you can’t control your own secrets, how can you be trusted to control the national security secrets?
NotMax
History circles around and bites the posterior.
Our home version of the Profumo Affair.
@Chris: @chopper:
CIA running martial operations in the form of (yes) drones as well as the Pentagon. CIA, for example, is exclusively the agency in charge of procurement, deployment, operations and use of drones in Pakistan. Probably in Yemen as well, but that is a little more muddied.
The Pentagon has been completely cut out of the loop in too many instances.
CIA budgeting and priorities have shifted way over from intelligence operations into (to put it bluntly) assassination.
Bobby Thomson
@geg6: No, thanks to Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, I am familiar with all Profumo traditions.
Brachiator
@Argive:
But it’s not because of blackmail, and the best honey traps often involve people much lower in the intelligence food chain. The East Germans loved to exploit people willing to give up secrets for love.
And apart from sex, old fashioned greed worked very well, too.
Chris
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Oh, I’m pretty sure they’ll find a way to force themselves.
Suffern ACE
@KXB: Panetta at CIA – all that money spent monitoring shit and we miss a minor event like the Arab Spring?
And you are right. He is a bureaucrat out of caricatureville. “Increase mah authority! Evertying I do is essential! Sequestration is deadly!” I hope he is gone soon. He has Rumsfeldian LOSER written all over him. He’s doing a heckava job.
jibeaux
@J.W. Hamner: I agree with that. It seems to me you’ve removed the danger with a public confession. Sure, it could happen again but I think the threat of two public confessions would be enough. It could be that he was asked for his resignation, but it could also be that he wanted to do it. It could even be an ultimatum from the wife, with an “and I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand next to you on the podium, either.”
Dork
Now that’s funny.
Bobby Thomson
@Bill E Pilgrim: I still like Jackie Brown.
JPL
@BarbCat: Halperin is so deep…
Hill Dweller
Petraeus reportedly gave his resignation yesterday, but Obama either wouldn’t accept it or asked him to reconsider, because the final decision wasn’t made until earlier today.
Suffern ACE
@NotMax: I’m fine with the CIA having drones – but not the kind that shoot shit. There should not be a secret intelligence armed forces that isn’t part of, you know, the armed forces. Is that a weakness and inefficient? Probably, but sometimes you need some inefficiencies.
Yeah, that probably means we still do drone strikes but the navy or air force does them. But I think that’s at least an improvement over the secret air force.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Chris: I’m sure they will.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Bobby Thomson: @penpen:
Okay I missed that one (Never saw it).
Actually “Singles” was sort of not bad also, including her part.
Okay, among the only movies that…
Chris
@NotMax:
It cuts both ways, or at least it did in the Bush years, with the Pentagon encroaching more on CIA territory largely because Cheney and Rumsfeld didn’t trust the CIA to fall in line. It’s why the Pentagon opened up an Office of Special Plans to create its own estimates with regards to the WMD intel in Iraq, and a Strategic Support Branch to, in Rummy’s words, “end the near total dependence on the CIA for human intelligence” (traditionally Langley’s turf).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Support_Branch
Turf wars, blurry lines, etc.
Culture of Truth
Nike Drops Sponsorship of General Petraeus
Culture of Truth
Petreaus To Be Stripped of Iraq War Victories
Suffern ACE
@BarbCat:
Christ. Then don’t let Halperin cover this story. Is there anyone in our media who knows how to do that? What’s Silver up to?
peach flavored shampoo
If we was quitting because of Benghazi, he’s NOT going to fake cop to a fucking affair, sinking his FamVal creds. He’d make up something else.
He probably banged a Chinese spy by mistake, lost a thumb drive full of intel on Justin Bieber, and felt guilty after he knocked her up.
General Stuck
And Penthouse Forum picks it up.
NotMax
Flash from the past (and amazing myself* that I’m linking to a quote from Mark McKinnon) when trial balloon of Romney/Petraeus ticket was floated less than a handful of months ago):
*so, a down-to-earth palliative
Punchy
@peach flavored shampoo: What’s the opposite of Occam’s Razor? Cuz ya just nailed it.
WaterGirl
@BarbCat:
As opposed to the rest of the time, when, what, facts don’t matter? Do these guys even listen to themselves? They are all letting the cat out of the bag.
Brachiator
@geg6:
I know all about the Profumo affair. And obviously here, it’s not just pillow talk, it’s pillow talk with someone who is also sleeping with the Soviet naval attaché. And there was a scandal here, and political infighting, but I don’t know that a lot of secrets were actually revealed.
And although the Brits rightfully threw Profumo to the dogs, they screwed up with the far bigger fish, double agents like Blunt, Burgess, McClean and Philby.
All this spy talk makes me want to see a movie. Hey, Skyfall opens today. Very timely, in a tinker, tailor kind of way.
Elie
I tell you — I always smelled a rat on this thing. I figured maybe Israel had something to do with it — the timing on the tape and the uncanny timing of the attack. Could it have been even more nefarious?
I don’t think for a minute that this is about an affair — though they (the administration) may have found that out and kept it under their hats just for such an occasion.
My guess, (and I am a horrible cynic) is that he had something bad to do with Benghazi — and that a lot more is going to be coming out and its not going to be good.
But that’s me.
WaterGirl
@reflectionephemeral: It is sad. He showed really poor judgment, in my opinion, when he blabbed to the Rolling Stone in a way that was totally inappropriate when he was still in the military.
I’m thinking this is another case of really poor judgment by Petreus.
scav
@peach flavored shampoo: Justin Bieber is a knocked up Chinese spy? This IS an interesting week.
David Koch
Kucinich for next DCI.
Given Dennis’ long time focus on foreign policy and his close contacts with Assad and Khaddafhyi he would make a perfect choice.
Kucinich or bust. If Obama doesn’t appoint Dennis then he’s sold us out.
Kyle
“Which makes me totally unsuited to covering it,” he should have added.
Citizen_X
Just wanted to add the classic portrait of Christine Keeler. For educational purposes.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Oops. I think it was McChrystal that blabbed. Never mind.
Elie
@David Koch:
Ya gotta be kidding, right?
Seriously —
Cmm
@The Moar You Know:
Who is Lang?
LAC
@Raven: NO! NO! NO! We want to talk about penises going into vaginas! Penises and vaginas!!!
Seriously, is this some sort of national disaster? He fucked someone, he fucked up, he gets the fuck out. And?
Mike G
An aafair by itself won’t keep IraqMeDavePetraeus from the Repuke nomination. Look at Gingrinch, for pete’s sake. And fundies hated Mormons with a passion until they dutifully lined up to vote for Willard.
Unlike flighty, flaky libruls, Repukes have sacred, deeply-held bedrock principles…that they will toss in a heartbeat to get power or money.
LAC
@Elie: Anyone got a bridge for this one to live under? Anyone?
Jay in Oregon
@J.W. Hamner:
I’m not sure what the point you’re making is.
Bill Clinton didn’t resign (and wasn’t removed from office) so he’s irrelevant to the discussion.
Elie
@cmorenc:
The knowledge of the affair is the leverage that the administration used to get him to resign but that his offense was something else much much more serious that cannot be fully named or explained publicly. My guess is that he may have ratfucked the admnistration on Benghazi somehow and took a chance that he would be a hero since of course, Romney was going to be the President, right? It would have been another horrible trick like the Reganites played on Jimmy Carter — negotiating release of the hostages for after his election — doing an end run on Jimmy Carter’s State Department to prevent their release before the election. What’s that called? Treason comes to my mind…
David Koch
This isn’t fair.
James Bond banged chicks left and right and he didn’t get fired.
srv
@Chris: And Nagl is prep school Headmaster now.
COINistas not having a good year.
Elie
@LAC:
I can accept being wrong. I know that it might be just my purple imagination. That said, I do not trust the holdovers from the Bush administration that have key roles in the Obama administration, including Petraeus.
Do you?
I always smell a rat around these people.
David Koch
Nate Silver for DCI!
It would be similar to Woody Allen’s portrayal of Jimmy Bond in Casino Royal.
http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/files/2012/10/casino.jpg
srv
@Cmm: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
Raven
@BruceFromOhio: stuckinred was my handle for about a year after I got banned from FDL, then I went back to the name of my late, great cocker spaniel!
Full Metal Wingnut
Jesus. Who gives a shit what he does with his salami?
Jay in Oregon
@<a hr@Culture of Truth:
Unless he was planning to murder the woman(?) he was sleeping with, along with anyone who might have seen them together, there’s no way he could keep it a secret forever.
Mnemosyne
@YoohooCthulhu:
This. If you work at the CIA, having an extramarital affair is an immediate firing offense, no exceptions, because it leaves you (and the agency) wide open for blackmail and corruption.
You can get away with an affair in an elected position or a different appointed position, but the head of the CIA has a lot more access to a lot more crucial stuff than, say, the Secretary of Energy, and even the appearance of that information being compromised is very, very bad.
It’s not a moral issue, it’s a safety and security issue.
Mnemosyne
@Full Metal Wingnut:
I’m sure that, say, the Iranians would be very fascinated to find out Petraeus was having an affair and start thinking of ways they could bring pressure to bear on him to make decisions that benefited them. Which is why people with high security clearances are dangerous to everyone around them if they start dicking around on the side.
It’s not the morality, it’s the fact that he compromised the security and integrity of the Agency.
Suffern ACE
@Elie: That’s a pretty harsh accusation. And if that was actually the case, I don’t think a simple resignation would be in order. I have no idea why the administration wouldn’t start investigating his contacts with the party. There is no reason why they wouldn’t try to hang him if they could hang treachery on the GOP. If find it implausible.
Elie
@Suffern ACE:
You are probably right — I got carried away and let my basic distrust of Petraeus and the Republicans and my ignorance of how things really work with the CIA and State, frame my thoughts.
nevermind…
Elie
@Suffern ACE:
You are probably right — I got carried away and let my basic distrust of Petraeus and the Republicans and my ignorance of how things really work with the CIA and State, frame my thoughts.
nevermind…
catclub
@Raven: me, me, me!
redshirt
Am I alone in this? I care not an iota about Benghazi. What’s the big deal? Terrorists attack, some people die, yeah, it’s a tragedy. Review your security protocols, change where needed, and move on.
Is this a Wingnut only issue? Or is there anything else to it?
Note! I have no TV.
catclub
@David Koch: Bond’s not married.
Elie
It is surprising however. Petraeus I thought was a very ambitious person. Surprised that he would loose his focus.
Wonder how he was “found out” — unless you think that he turned himself in …
J.W. Hamner
@Jay in Oregon:
Um what? That’s precisely the point and that’s precisely why he’s relevant.
If you don’t think Clinton should have resigned or been removed from office for having an affair… and I’ll bet many here don’t… then you are a total hypocrite for thinking Petraeus had to go for it.
nastybrutishntall
The one-two punch of Jeb Bush’s boy filing papers today along with this news makes me think there is a long knife stuck in this guy’s back that reaches all the way to Florida.
Elie
It is surprising however. Petraeus I thought was a very ambitious person. Surprised that he would lose his focus.
Wonder how he was “found out” — unless you think that he turned himself in …
catclub
@Suffern ACE: “There is no reason why they wouldn’t try to hang him”
So far, the only people the Obama admin has tried to ‘hang’ are people who release secrets without authorization.
In particular, whistleblowers.
I can think of lots of reasons not to hang Petraeus, starting with all the dirt he probably knows, followed up with all the powerful people he knows. Followed by all the media he has given interviews for puff pieces and access.
All things that whistleblowers do not typically have.
Elie
@catclub:
How do you think he was “found out”?
Dan
Wingnut newsmax is saying that the FBI found out and Patraeus put off his resignation until after the election to avoid embarrassing Obama. Supposedly the woman is a journalist.
It sounds vaguely plausible I guess., but they’re hardly a reliable source.
Elie
Sorry about the double comments — have no idea why those happened..
Raven
@Raven: ” Raven Says:
I wonder if it was the woman who wrote the book about him. She luvvved him to deaf.”
I WAS RIGHT!!!!
Suffern ACE
@redshirt: There is none. But AA+ Bonds has a pretty good rundown as to why the right is nuts over it. Let’s start with “They arent’ nuts because it turns out there were a lot of CIA personnel in Benghazi who may or may not have been authorized to be there.” No. Basically, they are convinced that Obama’s potential SoS replacement, Susan Rice, lied on the Sunday shows to cover something up. She didn’t actually say what they said she did, but they’ve been told differently and the MSM has decided to pretend that her statements were odd and misleading.
Anyway, they are now convinced that we could have gone into Benghazi earlier using troops or drones or helicopters or something from an Aircraft carrier group that they are convinced was in the area at the time. It was actually in the pacific ocean. But that is neither here nor there.
Basically the hearings are going to either pillory Susan Rice for things she didn’t say or blame Obama for not using naval resources that weren’t in the area. But since this story has been pimped for weeks, what’s Issa gonna do?
Raven
@Dan: Paula Broadwell
I said it when it broke. I bought the book after seeing her on a show.
ericblair
@Mnemosyne:
Well, DoE runs the nuclear weapons labs, so maybe Secretary of Agriculture would be more appropriate.
At lower clearance levels, you can mitigate an affair by breaking it off and coming clean with your spouse to avoid blackmail issues. Wouldn’t bank on it, though. And as has been mentioned before, it’s the honeypot issue more than blackmail possibility that the security dudes are worried about.
How hard is it to keep it in your pants. Er, you know what I mean.
Elie
@Dan:
Hmmm — wonder why the FBI was poking around? Maybe just a serandipitous discovery? Or did someone tip them? If a tip — it would be interesting to know who, wouldnt it?
redshirt
@Suffern ACE: So Wingnut only issue.
There’s nothing “real”, here, right? I get the attention paid to the film and the subsequent riots, from a strategic perspective. I don’t get – at all – how these events reflect badly on Obama or could be used as an attack.
Dan
@Elie: here’s the story: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/petraeus-resigns-cia-affair/2012/11/09/id/463573
Take with a while shaker of salt.
Augie
By all accounts I heard that Petraeus was doing a very good job at the CIA. Democrat or Republican I had no desire to see him step down over an affair – http://dixonthewall.blogspot.com/2012/11/david-petraeus-and-extramarital-sex.html?m=1
skyway
Now the news has it that the FBI is investigating Paula Broadwell for improperly trying to access Petraeus’s email. This is a security breach problem. Ooops.
smintheus
I’ve been saying for years that Petraeus is a no good, deceitful SOB. I’m going to stand by that assessment.
Brachiator
@smintheus:
Because he had an affair?
Wow. Not much difference between your assessment and the hysterical hyper-moralizing of evangelical tight asses.
Chris
@Elie:
Yeah, I’m still skeptical about that story. As I understand it, negotiations to get the hostages released were well underway in 1980, what disrupted them was the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, which drove Khomeini into a towering rage, as he was absolutely certain the U.S. had been behind it, and in any case considered it almost an act of war that we hadn’t warned him it was coming, when we definitely knew.
After that, it took quite a while to get negotiators back to the table, and by that time I think it’s perfectly plausible Khomeini was still pissed off enough at Carter to hold back the hostages’ release until after he left office. Dealings with Reagan are possible but certainly wouldn’t have been necessary to convince Khomeini to spite Carter.
(The man’s dealings with Iran in the eighties, in order to finance war criminals in Central America, is, on the other hand, pretty much on the public record and he should’ve been impeached for that. But oh well. “The country can’t afford another scandal,” silly liberal!)
TenguPhule
That’s because Bond chicks end up dead in the films or vanish after the ending bedroom scene, never to be seen again…..
Chris
@David Koch:
Precisely. And half the chicks James Bond banged ended up turning against their employers because of it.
Maybe the Chinese emperors with their eunuchs had the right idea…
smintheus
@Brachiator:
Except that my assessment was formed years ago based upon his record of flagrant deceit as an Army officer. Lying to Congress in 2007 about the “surge”. You know, important stuff like that having nothing to do with religion.
AxelFoley
@Dan:
Sir, you win the internets for the rest of the year. Where do you want us to send it?
BerkeleyMom
@Raven: Yikes. Great guess or if you watched The Daily Show interview with her, it is full of double entendres and very embarrassing in retrospect. All In I’ll bet.
chopper
@Jay in Oregon:
i guess it’s supposed to be a matter of consistency or some such.
fuck consistency. i want to watch the GOP drown.
johnny aquitard
@Brachiator:
If being exposed will cost you your job and any future political aspirations, then there is in fact a pretty good lever there that can be used.
trollhattan
@Citizen_X:
By God, sir, that is a well Eamed chair.
notoriousJRT
@reflectionephemeral:
Late to the party but I’m with you. My impression is that David Petraeus worked hard in the service of his country. Tom Ricks said on his blog that Obama tried to talk him out of resigning. An affair is not admirable and is certain to bring pain to Petraeus and his family. Petraeus was/is an ambitious guy, but I’ve never seen evidence that his ambition was unwarranted. The president kept him close – either as a friend or potential enemy, and he agreed to take the assignments the president asked him to.
punt speedchunk
I heard David Brooks on NPR today commenting on this, and apparently he’s of a “French” Mindset re: adultery. He’s not offended, doesn’t think it’s anyone’s business, consenting adults, etc.
I’m not enough of a masochist to listen to him regularly, so I’m not sure if his current stance comports with earlier (wider?) stances on the topic.
BarbCat
Yikes! Ashley Madison ads now keep popping up on my computer after searching ‘Petraeus’ earlier. That’s some real time adsense algorithmics.
Maude
He was found out because the FBI was investigating the girl friend. They thought his computer was compromised. She may have had access to some of his email.
Ricks is wrong.
Elizabelle
@notoriousJRT:
Just a tremendous shame.
Hate to hear of Petraeus’s downfall, in this manner.
Jay Reeder
@johnny aquitard:
Cost him his job? He’ll land on his feet at some Defense Contractor or Koch funded “think tank” for more money than God makes, and the hours will be way less.