Here We Go Again

[sr71plt]

CIA Director David Petraeus's career has just bitten the dust on the basis of an extramarital affair. Yet another plot bunny that I've played with in a couple of stories. It still hasn't come out whether it was a woman or a man--or both, and I'm watching in great interest. (I had heard rumors.) The timng of the announcement is interesting. Especially interesting now, as well, as the Republicans have been doing a little dance around him as possible presidential/vice presidential timber--as they did with Colin Powell in the recent past.

 

[PennLady]

Why do people think this stuff won't come out? Not that the article I saw talked about how anyone found out. But someone always does... a damn shame.

 

[PennLady]

And here's one take on it, from a movie blog I read. Not saying it's good or bad, or that I agree or not. Just a link.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/11/cia_director_re.php

 

[sr71plt]

Why do people think this stuff won't come out? Not that the article I saw talked about how anyone found out. But someone always does... a damn shame.

Well . . . because it doesn't always come out. I think you'd be surprised just how much doesn't ever come out. And as long as that is the case, there's always hope in the hearts of those engaging in something.

That it did come out most likely wasn't because Petraeus thought, "I think this Friday is a good day to reveal I've had an extramarital affair." It's more likely that someone got to him beforehand with either a blackmail attempt or a public revelation intent. (I'm already hearing the rumors that it was an inside job in the Agency by some who knew and were tired of the civilian office being run like a battleship.)

 

[PennLady]

Well . . . because it doesn't always come out. I think you'd be surprised just how much doesn't ever come out. And as long as that is the case, there's always hope in the hearts of those engaging in something.

That it did come out most likely wasn't because Petraeus thought, "I think this Friday is a good day to reveal I've had an extramarital affair." It's more likely that someone got to him beforehand with either a blackmail attempt or a public revelation intent. (I'm already hearing the rumors that it was an inside job in the Agency by some who knew and were tired of the civilian office being run like a battleship.)

I suppose we'll never know how many things come out and don't, and I certainly didn't think Petraeus suddenly decided to just reveal it. I do think this could be an attempt by Petraeus to get in front of it as best he could, if as you say someone was going to reveal it or blackmail him.

 

[jomar]

Time will tell as to what's really going on. He certainly didn't follow the usual script of public confession and apology, wife by his side.

 

[TxRad]

Time will tell as to what's really going on. He certainly didn't follow the usual script of public confession and apology, wife by his side.

I'm waiting for one to show up with the mistress and tell the wife and everyone else to fuck off.

 

[jomar]

I'm waiting for one to show up with the mistress and tell the wife and everyone else to fuck off.

This guy came close!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford_disappearance_and_extramarital_affair

 

[sr71plt]

Oh, the French do that all of the time. And a U.S. official could do it too if they were straightforward about it. It wouldn't work for a CIA director if he'd been hiding it for some time--it brings up too many questions of what he did for someone who knew it while he was trying to hide it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm waiting for one to show up with the mistress and tell the wife and everyone else to fuck off.

I'm waiting for one to show up with the wife and mistress together and ALL of them to tell everyone else to fuck off

 

[Quiet_Cool]

And here's one take on it, from a movie blog I read. Not saying it's good or bad, or that I agree or not. Just a link.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/11/cia_director_re.php

If you look at the first picture, the guy in the middle's looking off to the left (his left) like: "Uh-oh, I think she knows..."

Y'know what really gets me? Here I am, good-looking and still single, and these ugly married people are getting it at home and on the side...



Q_C

 

[sr71plt]

If you look at the first picture, the guy in the middle's looking off to the left (his left) like: "Uh-oh, I think she knows..."

Y'know what really gets me? Here I am, good-looking and still single, and these ugly married people are getting it at home and on the side...



Q_C

I think you've left out the "powerful and having access" adjectives between the "ugly, married" and "people."

But that's the flip side of why ugly, married, powerful people with access fall into extramarital relationships. It's their chance to do so and most of them fool themselves on what's enabling them to do so. I dare say some of them become powerful just so they can do it. (Yes, Bill, I think I'm talking about you. I think in Bill's case, though, he forgot to consider that he should be able to get a lot better looking women from the position of president than from the position of governor of Arkansas.)

 

[loquere]

Channeling Reagan?

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I think you've left out the "powerful and having access" adjectives between the "ugly, married" and "people."

But that's the flip side of why ugly, married, powerful people with access fall into extramarital relationships. It's their chance to do so and most of them fool themselves on what's enabling them to do so. I dare say some of them become powerful just so they can do it. (Yes, Bill, I think I'm talking about you. I think in Bill's case, though, he forgot to consider that he should be able to get a lot better looking women from the position of president than from the position of governor of Arkansas.)

You may have a good point, and it points out an even more pertinent point about people wanting power, and why they should never be trusted with it. It's a responsibility, not an opportunity.

Perhaps, however, in Bill's case, he simply underestimated whether people would believe this not so pretty girl's story about the President and the things she did for him.

Q_C

 

[sr71plt]

Perhaps, however, in Bill's case, he simply underestimated whether people would believe this not so pretty girl's story about the President and the things she did for him.

Q_C

He'd been through a pile of women by that time without a problem. He just assumed it could go on. My surprise is that Monica was a Miss Universe in comparison with some he went after. There was one after Monica who was fine looking . . . but, boy, what he tracked while he was governor looked (and acted) like something the cat dragged in. I remember thinking at the time that Hillary's biggest embarrassment probably was his taste in bimbos.

 

[TxRad]

Suddenly I have a couple of plot bunnies hopping around my feet like mad. One story about a female senator and another about a male President. (Not the one that was being discussed. I mean one with some taste in women.)

 

[lovecraft68]

So I guess when the secret service were busy lining up hookers in South America it was just a case of monkey see, monkey do.

 

[TxRad]

So I guess when the secret service were busy lining up hookers in South America it was just a case of monkey see, monkey do.

You should see some Embassy parties.

Ya can't tell the hookers from the rest without a score card.

 

[sr71plt]

You should see some Embassy parties.

Ya can't tell the hookers from the rest without a score card.

And whenever I went TDY to one of our offices in embassies (on my last tour, my territory covered six embassies), I had to have a briefing on who was married to who now (and sleeping with who), so I didn't get them mixed up during chit chat at these parties. (I don't recall any downright hookers being allowed in, though--at least not in taking their companion pay in cash.)

 

[lovecraft68]

You should see some Embassy parties.

Ya can't tell the hookers from the rest without a score card.

I prefer the good old fashioned swinger parties or Bachelor parties with some "paid entertainment"

at least that way the only people who are being fucked is the people, no ones tax dollars are going towards a bunch of stuffed shirts and paper assholes trying to relive Caligula.

 

[sr71plt]

The truth, of course, for those whose horizons are larger than a warehouse, is that probably most of the business that got a U.S. interest off the dime happened at embassy cocktail parties. (I used the past tense because parties have gone out of style on the embassy circuit. There isn't nearly as much drinking going on as there was twenty years ago. And even the booze bill then was worth it. I learned more secrets from vodka-loosened tongues at a party than from negotiation meetings.)

But, then, I learned more off in the bedrooms than in the party room.

 

[jomar]

Oh, the French do that all of the time. ....

Thought about that, but we're playing the US version.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

In the abstract, I will also be very happy when we finally have one of these extramarital affair exposures result in the husband and wife shrugging it off and saying everyone was in the know. Granted, there are a lot of people who TOLERATE their spouse's affair(s) rather than actually ACCEPTING them, but it's pretty much a given that some folks just plain aren't that bothered by it.

That said: in this particular case, getting him out of his post is the right thing to do. Anyone lower than him on the ladder would be out on his/her ass after an extramarital affair was discovered; he should be held to the same standard.

As for "why he thought he'd get away with it," we don't yet know any details. It's possible that the affair itself was old news, from before he was the CIA chief, and he has only now been confronted with it. Though how one makes it all the way to CIA chief without the world's most thorough background check is a little beyond me, and perhaps the stuff of a much more significant scandal than "powerful man has affair, film at 11."

 

[sr71plt]

I don't really think that the background check is the same for the "inserted at the top" position as for the entry level. It's at least nine months for the entry level. I don't know of anything close to the time spent in inserting someone at the top. And I don't think this is the first CIA director to have an extramarital affair while in the position.

 

[TxRad]

In the abstract, I will also be very happy when we finally have one of these extramarital affair exposures result in the husband and wife shrugging it off and saying everyone was in the know. Granted, there are a lot of people who TOLERATE their spouse's affair(s) rather than actually ACCEPTING them, but it's pretty much a given that some folks just plain aren't that bothered by it.

That said: in this particular case, getting him out of his post is the right thing to do. Anyone lower than him on the ladder would be out on his/her ass after an extramarital affair was discovered; he should be held to the same standard.

As for "why he thought he'd get away with it," we don't yet know any details. It's possible that the affair itself was old news, from before he was the CIA chief, and he has only now been confronted with it. Though how one makes it all the way to CIA chief without the world's most thorough background check is a little beyond me, and perhaps the stuff of a much more significant scandal than "powerful man has affair, film at 11."

Hells bells, Hilary was trying to get Bill impeached so he could run for another term. That's about as TOLERANT as you can get. He would have won too.

The question is who does the background checks on the higher ranking covert operations people in the CIA. Cloak and dagger, hiding things is their game. It's like having the fox check out the hen house guard dog.