Caught with Pants Down
In The Washington Free Beacon Matthew Continetti says, “foreign policy crises are metastasizing…And the United States is clueless. Its political class is reeling after its most celebrated general in decades resigned from his post as CIA director when the FBI exposed his affair with a journalist.”
Unlike scandals that bring down blowhard politicians, this one’s no fun for Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt. He gives an impressive account of the service of generals Petraeus and Allen.
Press Conference
The president seemed to hold all the cards Wednesday for his first press conference in 8 months. Greg Gutfeld says Obama’s outrage over criticism of Susan Rice’s explanation of the Benghazi attack was greater than his outrage over the actual Benghazi attack.
G-Men Gone Wild
The FBI agent who sent Tampa socialite Jill Kelley a shirtless photo is Fredrick Humphries. He is one of Kelley’s many manly friends. Kelley made a call to Humphries which set off the FBI investigation that revealed David Petraeus’ secret love affair with Paula Broadwell, as well as making General John Allen squirm.
Humphries’ lawyer says the bare chested picture his client emailed Kelley years ago has nothing to do with the investigation. He wasn’t hitting on her. It was sent as part of a joke. Here’s the picture with a story in the Seattle Times.
Crap! I already drew the cartoon. Lucky for me, my friend, American Spectator columnist Andrew Wilson, says to go with it – “it captures the reality of unseeing, uncaring and stupendously stupid behavior in response to brewing evil”. Ok.
I wonder if Putin knows her.
J Edgar Hoover must be rolling over in his evening gown.
Blackmail
Politico has a good timeline on the Petraeus scandal. His affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, began last November.
The story broke because Jill Kelley, a Tampa event planner, plugged into the MacDill Air Force Base social scene, received “harassing” emails last May and notified the FBI. The emails were traced to Broadwell from a joint account she held with Petraeus. Broadwell and Petraeus communicated with each other through the drafts folder in the account.
While there was no breach of national security, the information was passed on to AG Eric Holder, who sat on it until the day after the election. Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation on Friday Nov 8.
Krauthammer believes Petraeus thought he would keep his job by supporting the administration’s Benghazi storyline.
