The Broader Implications of the Petraeus Resignation: Personal Behavior and Public Office
And if they don’t care at all about those things, how can they be worthy of wielding power? It is not so much a question of personal morality as it is of character, not an issue of private life but of whether one takes seriously the concept of duty. If, for example, Bill Clinton was willing to risk his presidency for having some sort of relations — even if he could define them as not having had sex in some physiological sense — with Monica Lewinsky and then, according to the court finding, commit perjury about his behavior, that is not the sort of person one should want to be president. The fact that he escaped impeachment for the latter offense is not the point. His being willing to take that chance is the issue.
There is also something in the character of those who lust for power and fame — and I write this from long observation growing up in Washington, D.C. — that very much distorts one’s personality. Such people almost inevitably feel superior to others and arrogant that they can get away with anything. They start to take for granted that they deserve privileges but that the rules don’t apply to them. That’s why the founders of America wanted to limit government and the power of those who ran it.
Such wisdom is even older, though it has only rarely done humanity much good. “Put not your trust in princes,” says Psalm 146. Rabbi Hillel said almost two thousand years ago that the obsessively ambitious end up by destroying themselves.
Today, it isn’t so much that Republicans are more upstanding. The difference is that they pay for their sins because the media is so quick to devour them. If, say, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Missouri says something stupid once, he’s finished. If a Democrat does so, even repeatedly racialist statements, he gets to be vice president for another four years. That’s reality.
Before the French Revolution, there was ironic talk of those classes which could or could not be tortured. This distinction now applies to public figures as well.
Note: Of course, things could be worse regarding personal dishonesty. Petraeus’s counterpart in Jordan, Muhammad al-Dahabi, has just been sentenced to 13 years in jail for money laundering, embezzlement, and abuse of power during his three years in the job, ending in 2008. He is alleged to have stolen more than $30 million. At the same time, though, in America that’s just small change to pay to a green energy company in exchange for campaign contributions.
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Image courtesy shutterstock / Linda Bucklin
Just as “truth will out”, one’s Jungian shadow also will out. The struggle to prevent the shadow from outing itself, or at least the struggle to integrate one’s shadow with the rest of his personality, is the subject of many a man’s mid-life crisis.
That’s pretty deep. I’m limited to thinking with simple equations:
Gen. Petraeus = John Edwards
Paula Broadwell = Rielle Hunter + Lisa Nowak
Jill Kelley = Colleen Shipman
One big difference: Lisa Nowak was funnier but scarier too.
The “systme” – in this case the new-commie regime in power now – always has at its disposal “means” to deal with its perceived current “enemies,” or what it considers to be its “undesirables.”
Even Nixon employed it, to deal with Spiro Agnew before he resigned.
Given how many of the left’s darlings have gotten away with much worse,one has to wonder why Petreaus resigned before there was even a scandal?Is this part of a planned realignment of the key positions?
There should be little doubt left, as to why he so suddenly resigned, and in such a strange way too. Indeed. Timing is everything.
And if an injudicious affair is the reason, then some might suggest that Hill, and her gal pal Huma, has more than enough explaining to do.Ditto, Obama & Reggie Love, his ‘body double’. As to Billie boy, the ex Commander-in-Chief, while impeached, he did not resign. And he diddled his intern under his desk, and too many other places to enumerate. Hmm.
However, if other issues are at play, then this resignation makes a whole lot of sense -http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/11/benghazigate-theory-revealed-at-this-blog-shored-up-by-lt-col-ralph-peters-overall-theory-leading-to-petraeus-resignation-too-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/comment-page-1/#comment-2046
Sach ha’kol, at the end of it all, the gangsters in Washington will be rolled up-one way or another.
Only the Honorable can be dishonored. Since there is no honor among thieves and where there is no honor there can be no dishonor, that is how the Left continues to thrive. The higher the standard one is held to the further one has to fall when one fails and many don’t survive. If there is no standard there is nowhere to fall and the survival rate is high which is why Dems are always re-elected even after they are proven to be liars, thieves or felons or all the above. Political ideology and identity politics has triumphed over truth. The hyphenated American has become the hyperbole American.
THIS, my friend is SPOT-ON. I just had to go to this length to let you know. Thank you for your insight.
This truly sums it up. The “electorate” doesn’t give a sh-t about character. Axelrod has shown how they will vote can be determined by who THEY are. If it’s THEIR candidate, nothing else matters! It is this stark reality that reveals our gloomy plight as a FREE people.
Everything you point out seems to true to me, but the other side of the coin, which will not be articulated is also true:
Presumably to become General, CIA chief, President, King, MF-in-chief, it behooves us to have an alpha male (in spite of “male” being a bad thing these days). Alpha males ought to attract hot females. I want a CIA chief who has women, and plenty of them, on the side. That should tell the country that power is residing where we want there to be power. Running the world is no joke.
The “Jungian shadow,” to which Harvard Yard above alludes, is always covered by some sort of good-boy mask. We should not be interested in the mask. Didn’t anybody look at Petraeus’ chick and think, “I want some of that!” rather than “He’s been naughty, and must be punished.”
Neither our president not his challenger is alpha. I can’t even think of one alpha male in public life anymore. Panetta runs the army? You need a good barber and tailor instead of a record of having actually stood your ground.
” ‘Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate”
~Captain Ahab~
“Moby Dick”
For someone who has admired the female form for over fifty years (I’m 62), I look at Broadwell and go” Meh!”. Perhaps that much experience has made me more discriminating but I think not. I was known in my youth to dive head first into some very shallow gene pools (and youth is relative). Based on my own experience such actions are the result of arrogance. I don’t know the General, I don’t know what politics he subscribes to (does anyone?) nor do I care. I think he’s an as*hole simply because HE didn’t care about duty and country.
His wife, either knowingly or not accepted who he was and what he did for her own reasons. We were not given that option. This should make us more cautious about generals on horseback. Long before this came out he was lauded by the press and the military as well as politicians in general as a “smart guy, a comer, a seer. Even before all of this “the sharpest knife in the rack, extraordinarily fit physically who routinely challenged much younger soldiers to physical contests”. Does anyone see a favorable comparison to Putin here?
Maybe we’re supposed to overlook peccadillos because of the needs of the country. Maybe not. You won’t honor there in his autobiography.
Going down the road suggested by your observation, if Petraeus is ambitious, wanted a really laudatory bio, and his female biographer exhibited so interest, it make sense for him to have an affair with her even if there was better available. After it’s published, she becomes much less important, and he turns out not to be a good enough politician to end things in a way that makes her happy. (If she resorted to cyber-harrassment through emails, he also shows bad judgement trying to get on her good side in such a personal and intimate way, given that she had an “iffy” personality.)
No, we do not want CIA Directors, Generals, and other people in sensitive positions to have women on the side – sheeesh. The most famous and effective spys in history have been women who preyed upon the weakness of men for female conquest, or just companionship – Belle Starr, Mata Hari, Delilah, Soviet femmes fatale and probably some of our own counterparts. At CIA especially we don’t want hairy apes beating their chest. We want quiet professionals, nerds even. Who is to say that Petraeus has not heen brought down by an agent of someone whose interest is served by his fall? Just askin’.
Having worked with a number of people who had security clearances, I know that they are investigated very thoroughly. Such things as:
Have you ever cheated on your spouse?
Have you ever used illegal drugs?
Visited another country?
etc, etc, ad nauseum are asked. You are encouraged to tell the TRUTH and it is investigated. Finding out you lied is enough to deny a clearance. Finances are examined. In some cases, they watch the applicant’s house. Those who have clearances are required to have a regular (biennial? I can’t remember) security review, where friends, family and neighbors are interviewed.
I have been interviewed by security officers on behalf of my co-workers and they asked me all sorts of questions about the person. What did I think of them, did they have money problems, did I hear any gossip, etc. Most of all I was asked whether I thought the person posed a security risk to the united states (that’s the impression I recall anyway.)
Most important in this process, those who hold clearances are required to report to their security officer any changes in status…marital problems, nookie on the side, financial problems, financial gains, trips overseas, etc. One’s security clearance could be pulled and they could be fired if something was discovered and it had NOT been reported.
That’s how it worked ten years ago for the peons who did the day to day grunt work of keeping our country secure. Maybe things have changed. Maybe those rules don’t apply for the higher-ups. But I’m fairly certain that General P’s “nookie card” was in his file, and was probably known by the administration and security/CIA/FBI “folks”.
Call me paranoid. General P looks like the latest bright shiny scapegoat trotted out to make Bengazi disappear. “Why, he can’t testify! He f$&@ed around and had to resign.” Now that the video maker Nakoula is imprisoned and no longer being blamed.
If anyone in Congress has any backbone, Petraeus will be called to testify. Whether he survives that long…we can only pray.
Eisenhower is an example of a general with a bad comb-over, an alpha male who couldn’t keep his uniform zipped, yet he appears in other respects to have been an honorable man. I expect the same from Petraeus.
sally1137, I really liked your synosis. Just saying…
another issue, if you have something to lie about you have something to be blackmailed for.
In the case of a mistress someone who can get information from you to boot.
getting a little on the side is bad but, a mistress….
Timing is everything in life.. Lots of people knew for more than a year about his extra marital adventures, but nary a peep. A few days after the election and several days before he was scheduled to testify before Congress it all blows up. Does anyone really believe this is a coincidence? Wouldn’t it be nice if the next generation of Woodward and Bernstein type of investigative reporters would latch on to this scandal and start digging! One can only dream.
Pshawwww … there has only been one investigative reporter of the caliber of Woodward and Bernstein in the last 20 years and I figure James O’keefe’s days are numbered what with all the hitmen being sent out from Chicago to make sure HE isn’t around in 2014.
The only thing you will get out of the MSM as far as reporters are highly motivated “journalists” whose job it is to identify potential real journalists to be destroyed BEFORE they manage to even put a smudge on the holy robes of the chosen ones in power.
In days gone past they had a term for what our media is becoming: The Inquisition.
Hello, The media is just an extension of our government! Just saying…What is, is…
The media is controlled by access, since July 2008, when Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker profile of Obama as Chicago pol got Lizza banned from Obama’s European trip..
There have been a steady string of senior military suddenly retiring, removed from command,…
Obama’s America is feeling like Erdogan’s Turkey.
Hello, The media came under government control at least by 1913 for sure under Wilson. Just saying, what is, is…
If this affair started when Petraeus was a general, it was not merely a sin, it was a crime (adultery) under military law.
The reports so far indicate that it did start before CIA, and that the administration had to know about it when he became DCI because that’s one of the things checked for in the clearance process, which requires a polygraph.
Right. From which we may deduce: if they knew about it when he was hired, the affair in itself was not a firing offense. There must have been some other reason. Two possibilities that occur to me are first, (as I have speculated elsewhere on PJM) Obama was using this info to blackmail DP to support his lies about Benghazi when he testified this week, which Petraeus refused to do. There is a second possibility (which does not obviate the first, both could be true): the mistress story was getting out and there was no way they could not let him go. Apparently some whistle blower in the FBI contacted Eric Cantor about 2 weeks ago and told him this “investigation” had been made about Petraeus. Also, there is the whole weird thing about girlfriend 1 threatening girlfriend 2. They may have concluded she was a total nutjob and could not be counted on to keep her mouth shut. Since she wrote books, maybe they worried she would write a “tell all” about DP. EITHER WAY, OBAMA MUST HAVE BEEN LYING WHEN HE SAID HE ONLY LEARNED ABOUT THIS ON ELECTION DAY. Guess he thinks we are all such silly little children that he can say anything and we will believe him. “Ho hum. The “hearing” on Benghazi is behind closed doors so who cares. We can spin the news the way we always do and the “folks” will go back to worrying about the Kardashians….”
Didn’t Petraeus make a statement a few days after the attack backing up the WH claim that it was a movie protest that got out of hand?
Yes, you are rifht. And apparently he also lied to the closed door investigation on Benghazi. But then he went silent. So you raise a good point. I don’t have the answer, but maybe he saw how truly he was being forced to be thr President’s bi@ch, and decided to “confess” and bail. I have. O special i sight, just trying to make up a story line that makes sense. The Administration’s story doesn’t make sense. Personally I believe it is riddled with lies.
Really? Have you noticed what the military has become in the past few years? Did you notice that a homosexual lesbian was just Promoted to general with her live-in pinning on the stars? Did you notice that in our military all of a sudden, after it could be ignored no more, that suicides outnumber by more than double concurrent combat casualties? Did you notice that a supposedly honorable conservative combat general joined the ranks of the most corrupt regime this nation has known? Why did Petraeus resign for something that is normally a resume enhancer in leftist politics? Do you think the agency that covered up the truth about the current fraud president really cares about an affair by one of his appointees? People that believe that crap are the reason the Constitutional Republic no longer exist and a tyrant lives in the White House. Think about it.
Since you raised the subject of exotic political scenes, (the French Revolution) allow me to observe that Petraeus is fortunate that his fall from grace did not occur in China or North Korea with their tendency for troublesome officers to be in plane crashes.
The name Ron Brown ring a bell?
Ron Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the plane…
Ron Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the plane…
Ron Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the plane…
But the conspiracy marches on…
The last NORK Gen that was found wanting got to play catch with a mortar round. No joke.
Many on the left believe that their side is better at manipulation in general—no pun intended. But O and his minions probably believe that they are tops (which might explain why he believes that he is “quite possibly the greatest president ever”). Human achievement doesn’t get any better than smearing the hated opposition with Pravda-like lies that any intelligent person could see through and then getting away with it. This conceit might lie at the bottom of timing Patraeus’ resignation to occur just before the hearings begin. Issa may still subpoena him, and wouldn’t it be a spectacle to see Patraeus ‘unburden’ himself in process of unburdening himself over what exactly happened at the Benghazi compound on 9/11?
I still ain’t buying it. The entire story smells.
I hate it when my memory fades…the price of getting older…but
IIRC there is a semi-famous book popular in the 1870′s or so that proclaims, rather boldly, that those elites who govern are allowed a different set of rules because they are so wonderful. It was a justification of the debauchery of the upper classes at country estates.
I even heard that when Billy read it at Oxford he became enamored with it (literally it seems) and internalized it completely.
Those of you with a literary bent may be able to dredge up its title and author. I may even read it…
Holly Petraeus let herself go physically. As a powerful man, General Petraeus had plenty the opportunity.
The devil whispered in his ear — “you saved the world from Muslims”, “You deserve at least some fun”. “Eisenhower banged his assistant”. “Great men deserve to have a good time”.
Holly Petraesus should have bought a membership to 24 hour Fitness.
This is how those of us from the East Side of Los Angeles would see the situation.
What a mean, useless, petty thing to post here.
The author thinks that powerful men feel they can get away with anything.
After seeing a photo of Holly P., I think he was no longer attracted to her. If she lost 40 pounds he would probably be more attracted to her.
I disagree with the premise of the author, and offered my own.
Save the false piety for your men’s meeting. I prefer to live in reality.
If a husband is no longer attracted to his wife, he and she should seek counseling. If that fails, then he should ask her for a divorce.
Cheating on one’s spouse solves nothing and accomplishes nothing.
Correct. They should not cheat.
They should also both avoid becominng bloated whales nobody would want to have sex with.
Shallow in Huntington Park, okay we get it you’re a gym rat. Why don’t you take a little time and try to firm up your soul and not be such an ugly troll.
Ad Homimen…
You continue to emphasize your qualifications to be editor of a supermarket trash-tabloid rack.
I like your emphases on character and the concept of duty. Duty, in the Petraeus case, is linked to a promise to a loved one not to betray her. And, of course, if you can betray someone you have an intimate relationship to and have promised to be faithful to–such as a spouse–you can betray something far more abstract and distant, such as your country.
Instead of excusing the betrayals of politicians and other leaders, the public should be more concerned about these betrayals. When politicians and other leaders fail in their sense of duty, they betray the public. The public, like a pack of weak fools, simply sits back and simpers, thinking it is “sophisticated” in its acceptance of these behaviors. The public’s seemingly “unconditional” love and acceptance of these politicians’ and leaders’ behaviors is actually a form of cowardice and self-abasement. No wonder Americans are no longer respected in the rest of the world.
Exactly. Principles, unlike values, can’t be cherry picked. Not if you believe in an objective good. If you are a principled general but an unprincipled husband, or vice versa, guess what, you are an unprincipled person, and an unworthy leader.
In Stephen Covey’s book,, “Principle Centered Leadership,” the various aspects of life, i.e. marriage, parenthood, work ethic, health, friendship, are likened to spokes on a wheel. To fail at any one and claim all is well in all others is likened to saying “The tire is only flat on the bottom.”. This isn’t to say we must be perfect in all ways to be worthy leaders. But it’s foolishness to believe that failure in any one life aspect does not have an effect on all others.
Yasher Koach Barry, on your citation from our Torah. Here is another which is perhaps appropriate to this situation: “Who is strong? He who conquers his evil inclination, as it is said: ‘Better is one slow to anger than a strong man, and one who rules over his spirit than a conqueror of a city’ (Proverbs 16:32)”.- http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter4-1b.html.
I’m waiting for the report that Broadwell was an operative for the Democratic slime machine.
What’s going on with you PJ reporters! Com’on! Get the lead out and give us that report!!!!!
On the other hand, why would decent and good people, like Mitt Romney,, want to subject themselves to the politics of personal destruction that the Democratic party has become expert at. Republicans should be more diverse, they say, but then our candidates like West, Love or Palin are destroyed before they get out of the gate. We should also be paying attention tofraud at the polls. I think the panic of the Democrats on restoring some kind of ID requirements at the polls is telling. Can we be sure that Ohio,and Florida weren’t rife with fraud? In Minnesota, which voted down the ID ballot, the opposition was as well organized wnd professional as anything I have seen. The permanent party of governance will use any thing to keep itspower, which with crony capitalism which means, money. Its funny to see high minded utopian liberals march behind such corruption simply because they believe it is for the poor.
It was a testament to Mitt Romney’s character that all they could dig up on him was “my wife died of cancer because she did’t have insurance,” “he didn’t give us 20years of tax returns to pick through and criticize,” and”he doesn’t hug his garbage collector,” and that he was white and a successful smart businessman.
God Bless him. Mere words cannot expess how much we needed him to guide us on a different path.
Here’s a question/observation, since the US is now more or less a joke state rather than a great power who would be funnier as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton or John Kerry? Frankly I think John Kerry would have to work pretty hard to overcome Hillary’s reset button with the Russians. She set the bar pretty high with that one.
Of course another question is how many people will be killed as a result of America’s new demographics and love of humor?
Nah. Kerry and his wife were buddy buddy with “reformer” Bashir Assad and his lovely lady… So cozy and nice. I think this is worse than “reset” and he hasn’t even gotten the job.
I remember how bad the economy and US foreign policy had gotten by the end of seventies, which I take as a measure of how bad it has to be before a just-graduated group of college idealists — in the seventies it was, of course, the baby boomers — decide to discard the political junk they had learned in college and vote sensibly for a “Reagan” over a “Carter”. It’s nowhere near that bad yet, but give us another four years of Obama with Sec. of State Kerry and it will be. For today’s young voters, the results will forever discredit the MSM, the idea of “affirmative-action hires” like Obama, and political leftism in general.
In Time, we’ll see this Obama travesty of an Affirmative Action “presidency” with Obama, Hillary, Napolitano, Susan Rice, Pelosi, Jarret {is that her name?}, Holder, et al hoist on their own petard.
Trouble is, the rest of the Nation has to wait them out, and somehow survive the painful gauntlet formed with the likes of them lined up with their busy-busy vitriol.
How voters in America could be so deluded by “charisma” and “cool”…..twice in a row….. will be the subject of research for years to come….for both good and evil ends.
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lol!
Get out of the house! THAT’S NOT YOUR HUSBAND!
I don’t believe it was ever proven that Eisenhower had an affair.
I noticed the “Titles and Nobility” Amendment can still be ratified.
For conservatives to seek excuses for Petraeus is inexcusable.
If the Lewinsky affair was unacceptable to us in the case of Clinton, so is the Petraeus affair(s).
Clinton lied under oath about his affair.
We don’t yet know if Petraeus lied professionally about his affair. If he lied to the CIA about it when he was being vetted, that’s very serious.
My son’s observation: “When Obama is speaking, I see only hatred and anger in his eyes.”
Yes! I do too!
If you were abandoned by both commie parents, you’d be pissed off at the world, too.
The CIA is a bureaucracy like any other. It is full of infighting, intrigue, and careerist plotting. That is one reason the CIA and FBI refused to share information (and even different desks in the CIA sat on information in house) and contributed to 9/11 happening. If one reads accounts of the days after 9/11 and the first teams sent to Afghanistan, the CIA didn’t know what they hell to do. They couldn’t even outfit the teams which had to go shopping at local sporting goods stores and still didn’t know what they would need. Things probably have not improved and likely have gotten worse as the budgets have gotten bigger and prestige higher.
“Pride precedes ruin and arrogance comes before failure” this is one the most short and concise dictum of King Solomon.
Observing the world affairs, I can only tremble of what will come.
Since mere common sense dictated additional security at the Benghazi compound on the anniversary of 9/11, it then follows that the timing of Petraeus’ resignation is simply another thumbing of those self-perceived elite noses at the great unwashed masses. How better to distract from this administration’s responsibility for the Benghazi murders than to envelope the general in a tabloid sex scandal? And one spiced with, if one is to believe that the FBI began its investigation due to complaints from a woman allegedly threatened by Petraeus’ lover, the possibility of violent jealousy to boot.
It is bread and circuses made of smoke and mirrors. That America has been reduced to this is as heartbreaking as the lack of character that provides the opportunity for it.
Forget about Petraeus. Here is something much more troubling:
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/11/21875-obama-endorses-un-arms-trade-treaty-massive-gun-control-effort-underway/
It didn’t take but mere hours from Barack Obama’s victory speech, as the confetti was still being swept off the floor, for the reelected President to make a late night phone call giving a full and hearty endorsement of the UN Arms Trade Treaty. Reuters reports that the backdoor gun control conversation, which was shot down earlier this year, is about to make a grand comeback at the UN. It is fully expected to pass:
Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, the United States backed a U.N. committee’s call on Wednesday to renew debate over a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.
Naysayers simply state that the UN Arms Trade Treaty has more to do with controlling the flow of guns into rogue, third-world nations, than restricting the 2nd Amendment. However, that doesn’t appear to be the language in the last draft.
DOA in the senate.
On the topic of “things could be worse” — in Canada there’s Russel Willams. He was a rising star in the military (pilot and base commander), but also turned out to be a cross-dressing serial killer. He now serving a life sentence…
I wouldn’t be that optimistic. They may just defer the decision until the right time comes.
It is one thing to see a disgraced warrior fall on his own sword of his own accord.
It is something entirely different to see that sword held by someone else while a Comrade trips the soldier!
Nnot quite as bad as Vince Foster realizing late in life (not his choice) that he really did have a concience.
IT’S ALL TIED TO BENGHAZI.
The intelligence community has been PO about Obama’s BS narrative on Benghazi — The video did it! The video did it! — and has been leaking worse than my old ’68 Chevelle ever did.
So even if Petraeus is accurate that his resignation had nothing to do w/Benghazi from his perspective, intelligence leaks because of Benghazi may have led to the FBI sniffing around and, ultimately to his resignation anyway.
Petraeus lied about Benghazi in testimony before Congress, but was not under oath. I suspect he was under orders. I don’t expect this Four Star General to lie if he gets subpoenaed. This could be bad for the WH.
So, now, who benefits from Petraeus’ fall? I’d say: Petraeus. If he tells the truth to Congress, he’ll do a great deal to salvage his legacy. Also, now that he’s a private citizen, his loyalties (to his superiors vs. his country) aren’t compromised.
But until he testifies, Petraeus is vulnerable. I hope he stays safe. Remember, loosely, GOLDFINGER: I don’t expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.
Hey, site moralists! Please explain in simple terms why the nation can afford to lose another of its dwindling stock of talented public figures. To say there’s an unpleasant streak of hypocrisy and 18th century Puritanism visible in the ranks of you ‘social conservatives’ is to understate the stupidity.
Infidelity is a serious personal failing; cheating on your wife, we can agree, certainly has consequences for your marriage and family. But what’s it got to do with your fitness for the job? There may be a slender argument that it’s a sign of fatal weakness, kind of like cheating at cards at the club used to be in the 19thC. But this is the 21stC and who among you will claim that Petraeus’ penis is…er…measurably involved in his job responsibilities?
Eat this: Alexander Hamilton is a heroic figure to many, including me. Yet by your double-standards — the flabby pieties of waffling ‘conservative’ pundits and sanctimonious housewives in the flyover — his peccadillos should put him beyond the pale. Except they don’t. Maybe try leaving God’s work to God for once?
Yet many of you still wonder why you lost the election.
Is it really “18th century Puritanism” to want my CIA Director to avoid the possibility of blackmail? Funny, I would think it would be common sense.
Like you said: it’s a moral issue.
Liberals wouldn’t understand.
Less like common sense, more like a surfeit of dated spy novels in your life. Honey traps, eh? Today? In East Nosepick, Flyover county, maybe. Elsewhere — for example, Washington — you gotta be kidding.
2nd drone: It’s a moral issue to be wrestled privately, among P and his family — but not your business. You call yourself a conservative?
Meanwhile, one notes no attempt to answer the original question. Evasion, denial and a smug sense of rectitude keep you guys pumping don’t they? Meanwhile, the bad guys play you for fools, as usual.
No, I call myself a right winger, and anti-statist. Not a conservative.
I don’t trust guys like Petraeus, who cheat on their own wives, and sleep with other men’s wives, because they (obviously) can’t be trusted. I don’t want them in positions of power, and I don’t want to pay their salaries.
I never thought Petraeus was much to start with, so he’s easily expendable.
Never could stand Alexander Hamilton either.
No, don’t think so. Petraeus’ good qualities are widely recognized even by his detractors; most would say he delivered when in uniform and, er, on the job. What he delivered with his pants around his ankles in neither here nor there to an outsider, including a taxpayer. And, like most of us, you have no idea about the state of his marriage.
If you also have a low opinion of Hamilton, then who alive today comes closest to your ideal? Ron Paul?
I don’t care what you think.
Pet-boy is out the door, and he ought to be.
Choke on it.
Your comments regarding Republicans versus Democrats was flawed. It’s not just the media, it’s that Repulican voters (including Republican leaning swing voters) have standards. When the House page scandal broke in the early 1990s, the results were clear. Despite evidence in the official report that the 16 year old female page had initiated the encounter with Republican Rep Dan Crane,and his appology, Crane was finished in the next election. Conversely, depsite evidence in the official report that Gary Studs had pursued the 16 year old male page, and despite Studs refusal to appologize for his conduct, he was reelected until he retired. There is now a U.S. post office named after him. Democrat voters expect their politicians to lie and be sleezes.
One thing about the old timers: their acolytes were not in the loop for preferment. Look at General Lyautey who was posted to North Africa because of his sexual inclinations. He always had stunners on his staff, but his affection had no place in his professional judgment. This gal was an acolyte and a jealous one to boot.
I believe that military mentoring is corrupt for reasons too numerous to explore here, but it involves playing favorites when all should be treated the same.
I always wonder how such successful men are so vain, so needy as to run risks like this one did. Allen Dulles cut a very wide swathe but also went for quality and shot them on the rise, rather than bagging them when afloat.
I would say that his tradecraft was not good….
Why does the FBI go through the motions of vetting a General Officer that has been vetted continually over the years, when they did not vet the fraud he was going to work for in a different role? Was it to get something to insure his submission and obedience to the fraud regime? Why did he finally use this crock to cover his resignation? Because the truth would have made him a prime target? Was it really the supposed affair, or the protection of his family from the regime that led to resignation? WHY DOES THE FBI REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SERVANT WHILE HIDING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EMPLOYER???The national police force is a scam and a disgrace,er make that traitors to the Constitution. You know those extensive files on Davis the communist, the weatherman terrorist, Obama’s writer and pentagon bomber,his Islamist lover, his Chicago mob associations, his alterate name open warrants files,etc. etc. You are a fool if you do not think the FBI had and has the truth on the fraud, and therefore is not complicit in the betrayal of this nation!
My theory is that politicians follow the “4 P” agenda:
Power, Party, Personal gain and P***y
What was Patton’s theory about good soldiers? “Men who don’t f**k don’t fight.”
Aristotle´s theory : Soldiers that are good to kill are prone to love
You might want to take a read of Thomas Ricks’ recently published book, “The Generals: American Military Command From WWII to Today.” You can find it on Amazon, here: http://tinyurl.com/a885ymn
Part of this is also attributable to the near-deification of the nosebleed ranks in the military and the government. They start believing their own hagiographers. Yep. That word has been used to describe the almost fawning book written by Broadwell about Petraeus. Perhaps he, like so many others, began to like the worshipful following overmuch?
Darwinism: the only reason to seek power is to get more women.
Kissinger: Power is known to be the best of aphrodisiac .
And yes, American are too puritan. The German president lives with his lover. He is married but lives with another woman since 1990. Nobody cares ( he is a theologist)