One minute he's the former hot shot military commander turned chief spook, on everybody's short list for potential 2016 Presidential candidates. The next thing you know he's a sidebar on Entertainment tonight and the Daily Beast, with side by side photos of his frumpy wife and the hot young thing he's been dabbling with.
As a political geek, I was watching in real time as the White House press briefing was hijacked when the reporters PDA's suddenly lit up with stories of the Petraeus resignation. Press Secretary Jay Carney seemed a little dazed when the questions suddenly switched in mid badger from tax rates and Benghazi to extra marital hi-jincks at Langley.
Of course, we've been through this drill before. Nothing peeks the curiosity of the public like a little illicit sex in high office. Mistress and I are no better than the rest of you. She found this intriguing John Stewart Interview with the mystery lady of the hour, who apparently was hiding in plain sight, as the author of a suck-up biography about her lover entitled "All In". Mistress giggled at the double entendre title. And Jon Stewart almost seemed to be in on the secret as he teased out stories from her about their sweaty desert runs together in Afghanistan. One can only imagine the shower scene that came next.
This chunk from a Washington Post story about the resignation provides plenty of fodder for the imagination:
David Petraeus resigns as CIA director
Video:
David Petraeus has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he
had an extramarital affair.
In earlier interviews, Broadwell described meeting Petraeus in 2006 at Harvard, where she was working on a dissertation about leadership. She said they soon started e-mailing and discussing her research.
forces in Afghanistan in June 2010, he invited her to Kabul, and she decided to turn her dissertation into a biography. She made repeated trips to Afghanistan to spend time observing Petraeus.
In describing Petraeus in a CBS News interview two months ago, she said: “He, at the end of the day, is human and is challenged by the burdens of command. . . . So, he has this mask of command — you think he’s really confident — but I got to see a more personal side. He’s confident, but he’s also very compassionate about the loss of troops and sacrifices we’re making in Afghanistan.”
Ah, yes. She can see through that "mask of command". In fact, as a West Point grad who is clearly pretty buff, she has a whiff of Domme about her that maybe the General found appealing at the end of a long day giving orders to the grunts. And one can speculate how that email exchange evolved into an invitation to check out his bachelor barracks out in Kabul, half a world away from their respective spouses, where the whiff of danger from the possibility of a Taliban ambush can make even the most devoted husband or wife throw caution to the wind and surrender to the immediacy of the moment.
Actually, it all seems pretty natural, doesn't it? Ike and Kay Sommersby, his loyal WAC jeep pilot, apparently had something like this going on as he saved the world from Hitler during the Big One. Somehow that did not disqualify the simple soldier from Abilene from two terms at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
But we are a lot nosier and apparently more judgmental these days. And it seems that E-mail played a role in exposing this trsyt, forcing the General to offer his resignation when he knew the scandal was about to explode around him, like one of those suicide vests he was able to dodge in Kabul.
It's sad when the Washington scandal machine is more dangerous to an American soldier than the Taliban.
Should Obama have rejected the proferred resignation? Who's to say. But maybe by falling on his sword, gthe General will turn what would have been months of speculation and judgmental tut-tutting into a few days of media hype before Paula Broadwell's name becomes a trivia question answer to go along with Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Flowers and other "Bimbo erruptions" of the past. But she's a little different isn't she? married to a Doctor, with two kids of her own, an author and West Point Grad. She's hardly your standard issue bimbo. But will the press and public notice the difference?
No doubt the former General will fade from public view for a few months, only to suddenly re-emerge as an "expert" talking head on CNN or FOX the next time there is an international crisis, earning a few hundred grand in appearance and speaking fees. Wesley Clark will drop one rung on the "Former Generals" booking list for all those cable news producers out there desperate for content.
It all seems a little unfair. The approach of the French to such matters seems much healthier: why take away a talented man or woman from public life based on what happens in their bedrooms (or command tents)?
