Whatever the details of the David Petraeus event, the timing is perfect for distracting Americans from the humiliating defeat Romney and the Republicans suffered in the last election. And from Sandy and climate change. And from big media's election and polling failures.
Timing couldn't be better unless they thought it would have been advantageous before the election to add to the Libya story the GOP was peddling in order to swiftboat Obama. It sounds like the Petreaus affair has been going on a while, so timing of exposure and possibilities related to blackmailing him have to be considered.
I'm just getting some of the "This Week With Screaming David Gregory" while I write this. It gets time on our progressive radio station on the weekend- an unfortunate backslide into conventional dumb-assery. Gregory takes 10 minutes off his post-election interview with Senator Shumer and some idiot Republican senator and starts the show with the Patreaus story, with more later from the round table (yes, the first question, to Chuck Todd on the 'round table', is about Petreaus!)
If there are any media watchers out there that think Democrats have any ability to control messaging on anything for more than a few days, watch what happens in the next week when Republicans leadership should be asked over and over why they keep running on a racist, misogynist, Ayn Randian, global warming-denying platform.
There are enough angles in the Petreaus story for a shitload of conspiracy theories and whatever the real story is Republican leaders and their think tanks are working overtime to make sure they can use this distraction to their best advantage. That means some conference calls and maybe, until they can centralize a message based on what they want Americans to think really happened, a preliminary take that will leave their options open.
As usual, right wing talk radio will do the heavy lifting. Limbaugh will probably start the laundering of those story lines on his Monday show with a few well designed scenario options to help manage the cooperative media and get the Republican politicians and their teabag dittohead base get back to hate, blame, denial, and lock step obstruction. The story lines and talking points that work the best and reemerge in the lead up to the mi-term elections or some hyper-hipocritical and idiotic impeachment drive by the Tea Party will probably largely pass unnoticed in progressive media until after they become alternate reality 'facts'.
So if you want to know what their tact will be for the next few weeks or months, at least in order to improve their chances of raising taxes on the little guy instead of millionaires, there's a good chance it will get its first legs during the Limbaugh show on Monday.
(Wow. To their credit, the show later played an extended clip of Limbaugh ranting on the immigration issue- the more exposure and mention he gets the better.)