This bit of news highlights again something really screwed up about US politics. He slept with someone? BFD. He obviously knew how to keep it discrete-and since he did, its nobody's business but his own.
American prudishness claims another victim. Did he know how to do his job? Probably. The rest is utter bullshit.
It will be interesting to watch the recriminations unfold in the weeks to follow.
American prudishness, really? This has more to do about his refusal to allow the CIA and himself to be thrown under the bus by the WH. Chicago style politics at it's best.
You voted for it; you own it.
The honey trap is one of the oldest espionage tricks in the business. You can to extract intelligence indirectly via pillow talk or directly via blackmail. I'm not saying that was what was happening here, but who wants to take chances with the head of the CIA?
For those who think this is about Libya, I have some extra aluminum foil for sale cheap.
OTOH, this probably means Petraus is done as a future Presidential candidate – but that's just a bonus.
This explanation makes a lot more sense:
"CIA Director Petraeus resigned today in light of the revelation that he’d been having an affair with a “reporter” (Paula Broadwell) who’d written a glowing bio of him (my brief review is here). Of course, the right-wingers see a conspiracy in this. But as far as I can tell, there is nothing there.
A few thoughts:
(1) The affair apparently came to light during an FBI investigation into Broadwell’s access to Petraeus’ email. For someone in his position, this is deadly as it raises the possibility of secrets being compromised.
(2) The affair itself, of course, also raises the possibility of Petraeus being personally compromised or blackmailed.
(3) More broadly, the affairs shines an unflattering light on the too-cozy relationship between reporters and Petraeus, whose press coverage has often had a hero-worship quality to it.
For all those reasons, Petraeus had to go"
How much do you think Mrs. P will walk away with from the Generarls retirment pay? He was only an SES for a short while, will he still be able to draw from that and will she get a piece of that too.
Reading more into this story from different sources, something seems fishy here. In my opinion, this just knocked off a Clinton/Petaeus ticket in 2016, but I would have thought that the Dems would have wanted that for another 4 years.
Personally, I blame Mrs P. The first question I always ask when I hear something like this is, "What was Mrs P doing to hack the program at home?" Usually the answer is, nothing.
Divorce is always the woman's fault. š
On the Newshour tonight it said that another woman had been getting hate email and death threats from Broadwell which she asked her friend, an fbi agent to investigate which led to Broadwell and Petraeus. Not so much about Broadwell having access to his email but I really have not been following the story at all. It did raise the question, how does a AUSA LCOL, even a reserve LCOL and West Point grad go so far off the rails she sends such email in the first place. Of course we have our lesser lights such as the astronaut that drove from Texas to God knows where to kidnap and murder the younger woman she thought was stealing her lover who in turn wasn't hers and she was already married…blah blah. It's no wonder they drive men insane.
I am probably going to get put into the "male pig society" for my comments but here goes.
The Broadwell woman, is what is called "Deployment Beautiful" for those who knows what that means
The wife, I have to take Skippy's comments on this. If the roles would have been reveresed, the wife was a successful woman and after retirement the husband just let himself go to waste, you would hear the femanist tell her to "take charge of your life and get rid of the bum" or words to that effect. I am sure that there is more to the story from Mrs. P side that led him to her. My guess is that Petraus was a solid "company man" and married the Commodant's daughter and followed the path to where he is today. My guess is that this probably isn't his first time, but the first time that he got openly caught.
I find it interesting how the press is showing comparison pictures between the two. I can see why he may have done it. Especially since now this woman in Tampa who supposedly caused this stir has been seen. To me, she is just some yenta that thought she was more than she was around the base. I am sure that many of her so called "friends" from McDill who were on the "Beautiful Persons" list are probably distancing themselves from her very fast.
I think to answer my question that I posed earlier, if this case does result in the dissolving of their marriage, would it be really fair for her to get a large portion of his retirement pay? I ask this because she is working in a very high position in the Civil Service, and I would say that she got that job due to her being married to the Gen. A job that will land her with sizeable benefits, and she will not be the "spurned wife" left with nothing. No loss of a career for her, so why should she be allowed to probably take over half his retirement pay?
Wow, sounds like a bunch of cheaters who got burned by thier ex. "Can't believe the bitch took my retirement pay, all she did was stay homewhile I earned all the money." Funny stuff.
But she didn't do a damn thing to earn the retirement pay and doesn't deserve one dime of it.
What's really funny is there are people who think these worthless bitches "deserve it". Non cheaters get screwed by this stupid law too.
@ Redeye80: Take a look at the job Pretraus' wife currently holds. Look into her background and tell me that if she was left on her own, she would have risen to the position that she is in now. I say she wouldn't/ She was fortunate to be married to a man who was a shooting star. She parlayed her duties as a Flag Officer's wife into a nice government job. So you could actually say, that she benfitted from his career as much as he did, without having to serve in a war zone, and she raised the kids (I am guessing there).
So, in my opinion, she owes him. It was because of him she is where she is. And since now America seems to be about "fairness" it would only be far that Pretraus get's part of her future earnings just as much as she is supposedly to get his. If he lawyered up, that is the approach I would use.