OK, maybe it's just me:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

But why is it that sleeping with a woman he's not married to is all it takes to get a CIA director out of office? I mean it seems a rather underwhelming offense given how many people who retain their positions in office *coughDavidVittercough* happen to have done much worse things and retain their position and shamelessly keep doing the same kind of foolishness they got in trouble for beforehand. In today's America where the self-appointed defenders of traditional marriage cheat on their cancer-stricken wives to establish the bases for their third marriages and where sexual mores have changed for the better, how is this is at all a cause to dismiss anyone or for anyone to resign?

Sure, it might be bad 'if they talk' but then again, people like J. Edgar Hoover got away with much more than this. I really don't know what to make of Petraeus's resignation, so I'm basically asking you guys:

If someone in that position is boinking someone who's not his wife, should that alone be enough to lead to his resignation? (I admit to gendered bias in the question here but there aren't too many female politicians involved in sex scandals yet so that can be excused). I don't think it should be and I find the whole reaction to have more to do with puritanical pseudo-moralism than anything inherent in the offense. What do you think?

Comments

[politikitty.livejournal.com]

No. Just that he would have to document his affair closely so that he could prove that the affair did not provide a security risk.

If he never granted his mistress access to sensitive areas, if he never contacted her using an unsecured connection on his secured computer, or left her in the same room as his secured computer or blackberry, that would be fine.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

LOL. Access to senstive areas!

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

OTOH, if my partner and I get in an argument over the laundry, it impacts my work.

So, I can imagine something as heavy as dealing with an exposed infidelity could make him unfit for duty.

Perhaps, given the right paperwork, the penis placement police could let someone off without a citation?