WASHINGTON – As things stand right now, it’s officially impossible to take the Petraeus – Broadwell – CIA – FBI – Eric Cantor heavy breathing over an alleged cyber threat seriously anymore. That it will be a major topic in President Obama’s press conference today could prove a circus.
Later, the agent became convinced — incorrectly, the official said — that the case had stalled. Because of his “worldview,” as the official put it, he suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama. The agent alerted Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who called the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, on Oct. 31 to tell him of the agent’s concerns. – Motives Questioned in F.B.I. Inquiry of Petraeus E-Mails
We are not in national security territory. As for cyber crime, we’re not even in the Anthony Weiner realm, with the FBI agent first contacted by the woman who received “harassing” emails from Paula Broadwell, Jill Kelley, going rogue over ideology, now barred from the case, after he “allegedly sent shirtless photos of himself to a woman involved in the case prior to the investigation.”
But can we get one thing straight. A DCIA that gets caught philandering through emails really shouldn’t be running America’s premier spy organization. Is this really hard to grasp? The basic rule of email going back to the ’90s is that you don’t put anything in an email you wouldn’t want read on O’Reilly.
Somebody tell the people at “Morning Joe” and “Fox and Friends,” because the infotainment yammerers have gone completely off the tracks over this one.
The idiot brigade on Fox News channel has also declared David Petraeus won’t testify, compounding their 2012 election stupidity with the outlandish assumption, which was rolled out by Gretchen Carlson and others, that he can’t be called to testify about Benghazi if he’s a civilian. If the Fox talking heads pull one more gargantuan whopper out of their posterior they’re going to need corrective surgery.
Not only can David Petraeus testify, but he most surely will. As Andrea Mitchell has reported, after breaking the story, Petraeus already debriefed the station chief in Libya, though there’s some serious confusion about an alleged report that the CIA is reportedly now denying exists.
During a conversation with Bill O’Reilly on Monday, Ralph Peters started ranting about the White House lying about the whole imbroglio, of course because of some fantasy Benghazi cover up. Though truth be told, Peters seemed more bummed that Petraeus won’t get to run for president now.
The parade of FNC numbskulls haven’t gotten up to speed that Rep. Eric Cantor knew some of the dirty details in October and in fact helped the whole thing spiral, because of his Fox News channel mentality.
“I was contacted by an F.B.I. employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain Director Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security,” Cantor said in a statement.
Cantor contacted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III on Oct. 31, and a week later Clapper told Petraeus he needed to resign.
“I don’t know if it would have taken this course without Cantor,” a person close to the inquiry said.
Sen. Diane Feinstein and Rep. Mike Rogers, both of whom have leading oversight jobs of the agencies, were not amused they were out of the loop.
Our government at work, folks, though it’s more like egos on parade.
But as high school frightening as Paul Broadwell is, can anyone think of a more frivolously silly woman than Jill Kelley, the woman who received the jealous incoming email missives from Broadwell and went berserk?
At most the messages were harassing. The cyber squad had to consult the statute books in its effort to determine whether there was adequate legal cause to open a case.
“It was a close call,” the source says.
What tipped it may have been Kelley’s friendship with the agent. The squad opened a case, though with no expectation it would turn into anything significant.
Like, oh, my, god!
Jill Kelley gets icky emails that weren’t threatening or anything significant, but just made her feel harassed. So, of course the creepy FBI guy who sent her shirtless pictures would be glad to help, especially since that Obama guy is lying about Benghazi in the first place, and Lord knows, David Petraeus won’t do anything.
The FBI agents in the cyber squad who literally made a federal case out of a one-sided cat-fight must be infants, because what’s now being reported is unimpressive in the extreme.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency cannot be caught philandering with a woman who has less discretion than a 22 year-old intern. Sloppy impulse control and a midlife obsession he can’t control is one thing, but when you’re caught involved with a woman with the emotional maturity of a high school cheerleader you have no business being in charge of the top U.S. spy agency, particularly when you don’t know better than to use email to conduct your flirting.
If Petraeus started the affair with Broadwell while he was still in the military, the Military Code of Conduct has a completely different standard, which is severe, than the CIA, which demands full disclosure on all sides, leading to a lot of humiliating conversations.
There are a lot of swirling factoids amid the salacious details of human beings proving yet again they’re idiots and don’t take their own responsibilities seriously, not to mention allow their ideology to color every little issue of their lives, but at the bottom of this titillating story are a bunch of adults displaying the discipline of kids during puberty.
Hey, but as soap operas go, I’m glued to it.
Taylor Marsh, a veteran political analyst and former Huffington Post contributor, is the author of The Hillary Effect, available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Her new-media magazine www.taylormarsh.com covers national politics, women, foreign policy, and the politics of sex.