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

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

So, is this stuff she got as a biographer, or is she a spy and stole classified documents?

Interesting spy story: Ana Belen Montes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Montes). She never took a red cent for her spying. She did it out of hate of war and love of her people.

[politikitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, I doubt we'll ever really know the story unless she comes out with her tell all. And even then, I'm sure she'll exaggerate as much as she thinks she can get away with, since the CIA and FBI will be as tight lipped as possible.

From piecing the various bits together, there's no indication that she's anything more than an overzealous journalist. But it does appear that the documents found were documents she wasn't supposed to have access to, which is why a small FBI harassment case was sent up the chain. (At the time, it appears they did not know that the sexual messages were to Petraeus) Whether that means she abused her own security clearance, or his, I doubt we'll ever know.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The FBI was looking into harassing emails allegedly sent by Broadwell to another woman, so she seems not a spy, just very stupid, unless taking him out was her idea.

I guess his policies in Afghanistan are out of the news.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It at least used to work that biographers didn't get access to classified documents any more than scholars did until they were declassified. Then again if some Australian guy can release classified Pentagon documents all over the Internet, I think that this is a bit of an old-fashioned approach tot hat, if it were that.

And bah, Cuba was always small potatoes. My favorite spy story is the Soviet agent on HUAC the whole time McCarthy was going after the faux Communists.