updated: below
It didn't take long. A salacious scandal - a high-ranking official admired by both Democrats and Republicans - and a rumor that somehow, someone in Elizabeth Warren's camp must be involved!?
Geeze.
General Petraeus has resigned. Yes. Sad, very sad.
Admired, and respected, he made a personal decision that could end his marriage and has ended his career as CIA director. He admitted to having an affair and that is not something tolerated for someone with the kind of clearance required for his position.
As word got out that he was going to submit his resignation, the first assumptions were that it had something to do with Benghazi, according to some of those ah- journalists - on the right:
Petraeus resignation,” media titan Rupert Murdoch tweeted. “Timing, everything suspicious. There has to be more to this story.” Conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham floated the idea that the resignation has something to do with the handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
“COINCIDENCE?!” Ingraham tweeted. “Petraeus is set to testify NEXT week at a closed door session on Capitol Hill ab[ou]t Benghazi. Did [President Obama] push him out? This stinks!” The Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that Petraeus will not testify during that hearing, according to CBS News’ Mark Knoller.
Then, according to the ACTUAL letter of resignation, it was an extramarital affair, tough when you read he's been married for 37 years.
Then is it was an extramarital affair with someone from Elizabeth Warren's campaign staff. Huh?
Petreaus's wife, Holly Petraeus is or was an advocate in the Consumer Financial Assistance Bureau and had been a deputy under Elizabeth Warren. Is that the connection? Did someone hear that third-person and assume the affair was with someone from Warren's camp?
My husband was listening to right wing radio on his way home from work - he does that for fun sometimes. He came in and told me the talk was all about how Petreaus was somehow fooling around with someone working for our new Senator-elect.
The truth is, his loss is already being lamented by both the right and left:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC News that Petraeus’s personal mistake should not have led to his departure.
“I would have stood up for him,” Feinstein said in response to his indiscretion. “I wanted him to continue. He was good, he loved the work, and he had a command of intelligence issues second to none.”
~snip~
Rep. Peter King, R-NY, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he regrets Petraeus’s resignation. “General Petraeus is one of America’s most outstanding and distinguished military leaders and a true American patriot,” King said in a statement.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said it was Petraus’s “genius” that was responsible “for the success of the surge in Iraq."
“General David Petraeus will stand in the ranks of America’s greatest military heroes,” McCain said in a statement.
Of course there is all kinds of speculation, with the most popular assumption that he must have been threatened with blackmail and forced to resign.
Again, it's sad - we will hear more, I'm sure. But leave Elizabeth Warren out of this one, please?
UPDATE: According to Fred Kaplan at Slate
The woman with whom Gen. David Petraeus was having an affair is Paula Broadwell, the author of a recent hagiographic book about him, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.
There's a book I won't be reading.
And Broadwell is now under investigation:
The biographer for resigning CIA Director David Petraeus is under FBI investigation for improperly trying to access his email and possibly gaining access to classified information, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Friday.
Paula Broadwell is the author of Petraeus' biography, "All In." She had extensive access to Petraeus in Afghanistan and has given numerous television interviews speaking about him.
Petraeus resigned Friday, citing an extramarital affair. The woman involved was not identified.
The law enforcement officials said they do not believe the FBI investigation will result in any criminal charges, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reported. They also stressed that Petraeus is not under investigation.