The American Spectator : 'Extraordinary Incompetence'

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‘Extraordinary Incompetence’

By Robert Stacy McCain on 11.14.12 @ 6:10AM

Will the Petraeus scandal expose the truth about Benghazi?

Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard is in the news today because it is the home of Jill Kelley, who played a crucial role in the scandal that brought down CIA Director David Petraeus.

Mrs. Kelley’s complaint to the FBI about threatening e-mails she received in May led to an investigation that exposed an affair between Petraeus, the retired four-star general who had been top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, and his biographer, Paula Broadwell. In recent days, a Tampa TV station reported, Mrs. Kelley has repeatedly called police seeking protection, at one point invoking her status as “honorary consul general.” She has been described as an unofficial “social liaison” at nearby MacDill Air Force Base, and now the media are encamped in front of the home that Mrs. Kelley shares with her surgeon husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, and their three children.

So far as we know, the Kelleys have done nothing wrong and were innocently drawn into this scandal because of the mistaken jealousy of Broadwell, a married mother of two who admittedly carried on an adulterous affair with Petraeus, who is likewise married. However, the FBI is now reportedly examining thousands of “potentially inappropriate” e-mails between Mrs. Kelley and Marine Gen. John Allen, who currently commands all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Even without any hanky-panky on Allen’s part — both he and Mrs. Kelley’s family strongly deny any such insinuation — there are still many intriguing questions swirling around this story. So the camera crews are likely to remain staked out on Bayshore Boulevard, while reporters, editors, and producers explore these questions, including the big one: How does this relate to the apparent failures in Libya that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens two months ago?

It is possible that, amid the tawdry details of the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell, there may lie at least serious clues to the debacle in Benghazi. To extend the possibilities even further, the sex-scandal aspects of this story may bring fresh political hope to Republicans who have been downcast and despondent since last week’s catastrophic election. The GOP’s finger-pointing and navel-gazing could all be moot, if it should turn out that President Obama squeezed to a narrow victory while his administration was (with the help of its media allies) covering up a genuinely serious scandal.

Consider the suggestion made yesterday by Katie Pavlich: In a speech late last month that had previously gotten little notice, Broadwell said that the CIA was holding prisoners at an annex to the consulate in Benghazi. “This explains two things,” wrote Pavlich, author of a bestselling book about the Justice Department’s gun-running scandal. “The U.S. consulate in Benghazi was being repeatedly attacked because prisoners were being held and because President Obama signed an executive order in 2009 banning secret CIA prisons, they had to find an alternative story to cover-up what really happened, hence the YouTube video.”

Is this indeed the explanation for the Obama administration’s dishonest attempt to blame the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans on an obscure anti-Islam video? Certainly, as the CIA chief’s biographer and mistress, Broadwell was well-positioned to know the truth of the agency’s operations. And if the CIA was indeed running a secret prison in Libya contrary to the president’s executive order, well, what did the president know and when did he know it? (As the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto notes, the CIA has adamantly denied holding prisoners in Libya.)

Far beyond Benghazi, however, there was a lot the president probably should have known about Petraeus’s activities that — at least if you believe the White House — he wasn’t told until after the election. And a lot of that has to do with Jill Kelley, her husband and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, whose friendship with both Petraeus and Allen would seem cause for security concerns, even apart from the Broadwell affair.

Mrs. Kelley has been described as a Tampa “socialite,” a term that might imply great wealth, but it appears that the expense of her posh lifestyle exceeded her family’s income. She and her husband have reportedly been sued by banks for $4 million, including a delinquent mortgage on their $1.2 million home on fashionable Bayshore Drive. The couple’s troubling debts, however, did not prevent them from hosting parties at which their guests enjoyed lavish buffets, premium cigars, and music provided by string quartets. Meanwhile, Mrs. Kelley’s sister was going through an acrimonious divorce and in April filed for bankruptcy, listing more than $3 million in debts.

The Kelleys apparently began their friendship with Petraeus in 2008, when the four-star general took over U.S. Central Command based at MacDill. The general and his wife, Holly, were frequent guests at the Kelley family’s six-bedroom home, while Jill Kelley and her sister reportedly took Mrs. Petraeus out for lunches and shopping trips after the general was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. The Kelleys similarly befriended Allen, who succeeded Petraeus as the general in charge of CentCom. This is the innocent explanation for how, among other things, both Petraeus and Allen wrote letters on behalf of Mrs. Kelley’s sister to a judge in Washington, D.C., who was supervising the custody dispute between her and her ex-husband. (The judge reportedly described the sister as dishonest and “psychologically unstable.”) However innocent the explanation, eyebrows were raised after it was reported that the FBI was poring over as many as 30,000 pages of e-mails between Allen and Mrs. Kelley.

The general’s office described these messages as “innocuous,” many of them CC’d to the general and his wife, but the sheer volume of the correspondence was troubling to many. And then there was the report in the Washington Post that Mrs. Kelley, who as a child immigrated to the United States from Lebanon with her family, “was a ‘self-appointed’ go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern government officials.” A heavily indebted socialite close to top U.S. military and intelligence officials who is also simultaneously in communication with foreign governments? If anyone at FBI headquarters hears an unexplained sound, it’s probably J. Edgar Hoover’s ghost screaming “security risk!”

It wasn’t until Mrs. Kelley began getting mysteriously threatening e-mails, however, that the FBI took an interest. Some of the messages suggested a disturbing familiarity with the comings and goings of top U.S. officials and, by September, the bureau was ready to confront Broadwell with the evidence that she had sent the threats. Published accounts, including a timeline compiled by NBC News, say that the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus lasted about eight months, from last November to July of this year. By late summer, Attorney General Eric Holder was informed of the FBI’s investigation, but (if you believe what has been reported so far) Holder didn’t bother to tell the president that the CIA director had been caught in this compromising situation.

Some conservatives have expressed suspicion that the belated revelation of the Broadwell-Petraeus affair is, in fact, part of the Obama administration’s attempt to distract from upcoming congressional hearings about the Benghazi attack. These suspicious minds see the sex scandal as the administration’s way of discrediting Petraeus, whose testimony about the failures in Libya could implicate other top officials. That theory seems too complex and conspiratorial to me. More likely, as Tim Stanley of the London Daily Telegraph says, the sordid mess surrounding Petraeus “testifies to the extraordinary incompetence at all levels of the federal security state.”

The simplest and most obvious explanation is that administration officials, in an effort to keep a lid on everything — from Benghazi to Bayshore Drive — suppressed the ugly facts until after the election. Whether this suppression will be construed as a “cover-up,” involving the kind of wrongful actions that might be seen as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” could depend in large measure on two usually antagonistic forces: Republicans in Congress, dispirited by their election losses, and a media establishment that has spent the past week transparently celebrating Obama’s re-election. If the GOP can recover enough morale to fight for the truth, and if the media can put down their partisan pompoms long enough to do some serious reporting, Americans may soon see their president in a much less flattering light.

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (68) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

drudge ette obama| 11.14.12 @ 6:43AM

I feel a little guilty at having so much fun reading your article and others over recent days. While I imagine that these characters feel some embarassment, I suspect the true remorse sets in when they realize the power is gone and the world ridicules them rather than looks up. I can just see the SNL skits. The book will be called "Brass and Skirts". Keep it coming.

R Martin| 11.14.12 @ 8:06AM

Don't feel guilty; it's called schadenfreude, and we're all enjoying it.

Bob Grant| 11.14.12 @ 8:27AM

"While I imagine that these characters feel some embarassment..."

Drudge ette,

It's 2012, people don't FEEL embarassment! People don't FEEL shame! We live in The Age of Narcissism!

This is their 15 minutes of fame. Even as we speak, these "characters" are plotting how they can benefit from this most unfortunate incident.

Movies, book deals, interviews with Katy Couric...

Mike G| 11.14.12 @ 8:36AM

There's no such thing as shame anymore. As proof I offer any or all of the "reality" shows one can find populating that "vast wasteland" called TV.

Alan| 11.14.12 @ 9:06AM

Shame is a sellable commodity.

RandyH| 11.14.12 @ 5:13PM

Joellen| 11.14.12 @ 9:00AM

Drudge ette obama, You're having fun reading this because it's NOT about the FOUR DEAD AMERICANS any longer. This is another example of how the media controls the narrative - bring it back, and stay focused.

Otis, my man!| 11.14.12 @ 9:56AM

No Obama supporters give a damn what he does. He could sacrfice toddlers to Moloch on the White House lawn and the Media would excuse it as an enriching Multi-cultural experience. The man can do no wrong. Nothing will come of this scandal. Nothing.

Al Adab| 11.14.12 @ 1:36PM

He and all too many of our fellow citizens do sacrifice todlers to Moloch, we just call the great god, "Choice" and use even younger beings.

Mike Rogers | 11.14.12 @ 6:48AM

Nice summary.
Now if only a handful of honest Democrats in the Senste would become as annoyed as Di-Fi seems to be, those "high crimes and misdemeanors" might translate into action.

Craigpurcell| 11.14.12 @ 7:46AM

Let's hope Diane doesn't just try and protect Dem interests.

JimH| 11.14.12 @ 8:04AM

Di-Fi seems lee concerned about what was done than the fact that she was not told.

Roscoe| 11.14.12 @ 9:26AM

I concur. This is exactly what I thought after watching her Sunday.

Appleby| 11.14.12 @ 7:15AM

People like my sister will not care two hoots about any of this. They will be Demanding all the stuff Dear Leader promised them in return for their votes -- most of them have never been out of their neighbourhoods, save perhaps to Disney World or to the university they presently attend, and all they care about is the coins clinking into their tin cups that Obama promised to shake out of the pockets of TheRich. They don't care if the whole world explodes in flames, as long as they get their ObamaPhones.

Alan| 11.14.12 @ 7:55AM

Trust me, they WILL care one day. Problem is that most of the present brain dead who don't know will have their epiphanies about history repeating itself about halfway between the top of the cliff and their doom on the rocks below. It will be a short epiphany, but a very shocking one.
I take solice in the fact that when I go over the cliff as this thing explodes I'll have a lot of dead idiots to land on to cushion my fall.

chuck| 11.14.12 @ 8:31AM

Alan,

We know what is coming, so take the steps necessary to cushion the fall, or to avoid the fall altogether. Get yourself out of debt. Keep extra cash on hand. Buy some gold. Buy yourself some guns, learn how to use them, and get plenty of ammo. If possible, do as much business as you can on a cash basis. Do everything you can to lessen the impact of taxes on your life. Refuse to "feed the monkey". Let it starve.

Producers are now the sheep at the table with the hungry wolves. But what the wolves don't understand is, the sheep ALWAYS HAVE THE OPTION OF LEAVING THE TABLE! And when there are no sheep around, the wolves eat each other. Think: Greece.

It is your decision to stay and be eaten, or leave the dinner party. For me, I'm leaving the table. I'm just producing enough to meet my family needs, but not enough to pay taxes. Screw 'em!

Alan| 11.14.12 @ 8:51AM

Trust me Chuck, we are ready, no debt, no credit cards, bought 40K of gold at 785 an ounce a while ago and plenty of cash on hand and living on open land. I know the drill.

Nancy in NC| 11.14.12 @ 8:00AM

That "university they presently attend" is probably a majority of the problem, along with the public schools they attended before, and a nuclear family (or not) that promotes the same type of stupidity. Turn on the TV and watch your brain cells fly out the window. A number of the current population is so stupid they text and drive.

Is there something in the water that is making us all complete morons? I'm beginning to believe it must be true, or it's the hormones in the chicken.

SUBVET| 11.14.12 @ 10:10AM

Nancy girl............it's all a distraction to keep you busy and dumbed down.

Chuck has the right idea......we are in survival mode now you have to be flexable. You have to depend on and protect yourself.

The end game is CONTROL...........

Craigpurcell| 11.14.12 @ 7:45AM

...and you wonder where your tax dollars are going? It's a "wheels up, we are going for a ride" culture among the class of people paid for by the taxpayer.

Nancy in NC| 11.14.12 @ 8:03AM

I'm reminded of : Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Truer words have never been spoken. Finding a hero these days is quite a task.

R Martin| 11.14.12 @ 8:49AM

Finding heroes is not that hard. They live on your street, they probably live in your house, they are the guys with stripes on their sleeves rather than stars on their shoulders, they are the people who run into burning buildings and they are the people who take the time and make the effort to teach their children virtue, good manners and respect for others. They are all around us, but they are not self promoters and their heroism is not widely celebrated.

Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.14.12 @ 8:04AM

As I suggested in a post yesterday, when the Russian spy ring that included Anna Chapman was revealed a couple of years back, people were scratching their heads wondering what could be accomplished by having honey traps close to key policy makers. This story points out exactly the kind of damage that can be done by having attractive manipulative people interacting with those who make decisions in the national security arena.

Von Mises Jr| 11.14.12 @ 8:40AM

The Benghazi assassinations like the murder of Brian Terry with "Fast and Furious" do not affect the average American in any discernible way. So they remain unaware and unconcerned.
The Iranian jets attacking our drone likewise do not affect average people although it is also a terrorist act and Act of War.
No one cared about Fort Hood, except the family of the thirteen killed by a terrorist.
But as we ignore terrorism and our regime apologizes to terrorist as they apparently arm Al Qaeda and run clandestine secret CIA prisons, the terror will increase. I fear it will be coming to a theater near you, and then people will care. People will not face the problems until they blow up in their faces.

Al Adab| 11.14.12 @ 12:27PM

Jr. is correct here. The policy of this administration is to ignore (the word denial comes to mind) that there do exist enemies of this country who seek to do us harm. The Patraeus matter is being used as a red herring, a public distraction, from the underlying issues of incompetence and malfeasence which continue as the hallmarks of this administration. The litany of failures is to long to list. Self preservation, not national interest or security, is what drives this group. Unless full scale investigations and Congressional hearings on the scale of Sam Ervin begin soon, these threats will continue.

Dodd2| 11.14.12 @ 8:41AM

Mrs. Kelley is an "honorary consul general" for MacDill Air Force Base.

What does that mean, that she services the brass? Seems that way.

Roscoe| 11.14.12 @ 9:39AM

No, the article above didn't say "honorary consul general for MacDill AFB". I heard local radio this morning say that the South Korean consulate had conferred upon her this honorary consul general title. The report didn't say why. The report said words to the effect that the honorary title required no duty, & carried no diplomatic privilege or protection. Although, the report also said that apparently her private automobile has some kind of diplomatic tag.

Joseph Valachi| 11.14.12 @ 9:33AM

Here's a good question - if the Benghazi consulate
or facilities nearby were being used as CIA
detention centers why wasn't there more
security? Why did the Administration refuse
repeated calls for added security?

If you are holding suspected terrorists at a
facility located in a neighborhood teaming
with Al Queda militias, one might reasonably
assume that facility might be a prime target.

SUBVET| 11.14.12 @ 10:16AM

Joseph.........the bottom line it's about GUNS lots of GUNS.

When the CIA is invloved it turns out to be a magic trick........and we are to dumb to see it.

JP| 11.14.12 @ 11:19AM

I don't think the CIA was using the mission as a detention/rendition center. For one thing, there isn't a CIA case officer out there who would defy an Executive Order. If there was one, I hope he had a good lawyer on retainer. Secondly, the President could defy his own Executive Order only if he filed a Presidential Finding. It happens all the time in covert ops. Presidential Findings give operators legal cover if the law come a calling.

But, if I am not mistaken, the President has to notify Congress (behind closed doors, of course) within 60 days of filing his findings. Why in the world would President Obama do such a reckless thing? And if Congress knew about the alleged rendition cells, then they are themselves culpable. Knowing what we know about the Senate Oversight staffs, something like that would have made its way to the NYTs within weeks. There are people on these Overisight Committes who hate renditions no matter what party is running things.

I still believe that Obama was running guns for Al Qaida out of the Bengahzi Mission. Stevens was sent into Lybia in order to establish quick and good relations with the "rebels". It wouldn't be difficult to imagine Obama and Hillary finding "common ground" with Al Qaida.

gene| 11.14.12 @ 9:42AM

If Obama had been a Republican President when Benghazi erupted and these people died, the
LGBT
would have been on the news every night screaming about the Ambassador being raped and tortured to death. Before the Election, they would have marched on Washington. They would have demanded a Congressional Investigation and Special Prosecutors.
But since it is a Democrat Obama? TOTAL silence. The "ends justify the means" and people have to be sacrificed sometimes.

Mike in N.C.| 11.14.12 @ 10:17AM

Does Fox write TAS's ridiculous conspiracy theories or is it the other way around?

The most salient point McCain forgot is that Cantor was informed of the investigation in October.

Tom Kyba| 11.14.12 @ 10:51AM

Wow, that changes everything. Idiot.

JP| 11.14.12 @ 11:08AM

And you point is? And what exactly is Cantor supposed to have done with that bit of info? What was Cantor told? Probably nothing more than the DCI was under investigation for the crime of adultery. Obama has every single bit and piece of communications concerning Benghazi under DOJ/FBI lock and key. And thus far, the House GOP has shown no inclination to press them for the tapes.

Again, what is your point?

spike59| 11.16.12 @ 6:17AM

point? since when has that dullard EVER had an actual point to make?

rjh| 11.14.12 @ 10:44AM

"Americans may soon see their president in a much less flattering light."

For over 50% of our ignorant electorate and the sycophant news media, this will never happen.

Vic| 11.14.12 @ 11:49AM

@rjh: you are right. I think that these things tend to start at the top. Don't be surprised if it turns out that Obozo and Holder are also in illicit sexual relations with some pretty young things working for them. That the upright conservative and highly decorated warrior General Petraeus could stoop to such lowly conduct means it is acceptable in the Obama administration to indulge in sexual adventures. No wonder it has turned out that even General Allen is involved in sexual excapedes with another publicity hungry woman

Drunken Sailor| 11.14.12 @ 3:54PM

When the head office is run like a frat house it is only a matter of time before disclipine becomes a thing of the past.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-meat.html

Louisiana Joe| 11.14.12 @ 4:18PM

Any sweet young thing Barry Obama was involved with would have to be wearing a jock strap like Reggie Loooove, his “body man”

JP| 11.14.12 @ 11:05AM

Using the "15 Minutes of Fame" theory, as well as factoring the most important detail -the Kelly's debts, this entire scandal could be nothing more than the Kelly's attempt to come up with $5-10 million quick. I can just see the socialite now, working with her lawyers on book deals, talk show appearances, and perhaps even a movie deal. Maybe even an airbrushed photo spread for Maxim is in the works (The Spies Who Loved Me! or The Mistress of Bay Shore).

This scandal has such an American flavor to it, that it would be difficult to replicate in London, Rome, or Paris. All that is needed to really give this scandal an Echt Amerika tragic imprint to it is for Jill Kelly to follow Octo-Mom's footsteps into the porn industry.

Simon Templar| 11.14.12 @ 11:21AM

"Some conservatives have expressed suspicion that the belated revelation of the Broadwell-Petraeus affair is, in fact, part of the Obama administration's attempt to distract from upcoming congressional hearings about the Benghazi attack. These suspicious minds see the sex scandal as the administration's way of discrediting Petraeus, whose testimony about the failures in Libya could implicate other top officials. That theory seems too complex and conspiratorial to me. "

This single paragraph represents to me the very reason why this nation will crumble into a big government, big business tyranny.
The stupidity an simple mindedness of so many supposedly on our side astounds me.
This was in fact, part of the coverup as the crazy conservatives have stated. It was first used to create leverage and threat against Patraeus to keep his mouth shut. After the election, they threw him under the bus knowing full well he was still a risk and decided it best to expose him and use it to distract and discredit, see anyone talking about Benghazi? It is always best to control the narrative rather than your opposition. It is not complicated, it is typical, it has been done before, and in Chicago it happens all the time.
Maybe we truly have devolved into a nation of idiots.

Drunken Sailor| 11.14.12 @ 3:56PM

Your dead on Simon. This kind of tactic is common in Chicago and with Obama personally. Ask some of his political opponents.

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 11:42AM

I am one of those CONSPIRACY THEORISTS that RSM would probably poo poo, but I believe that this sexual situation is part of a much larger [and yes, "security"] concern for this country. Frank Gaffney etc has previously written about a arms/gun running etc operation being conducted out of Lybia to supply Islamic rebels with same. Rebel fighters in Syria recently requested worldwide recognition of their organization as the official Syrian government, and same has bee rejected by mojor foreign governments if/until a unification of the various rebel factions in Syria cna be unified. Is our government involved up to their eyeballs in this? Are these generals testimony crutial to our knowledge of same, if true??????????

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 11:44AM

PS: Was Fast & Furious maybe part of same, in that arms were being funneled THROUGH Mexico on their way to these ME rebels???????????????

Occam's Tool| 11.14.12 @ 11:52AM

On the other hand, here's how Bibi handles the problems, as the awesome website Weasel Zippers notes:

Ahmed Jabari, head of Hamas’ military wing, was killed Wednesday in a targeted strike by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Islamist group said an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the Gaza Strip, killing both Jabari, who ran the organization’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, and a passenger.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service confirmed it had carried out the attack, saying it had killed Jaabri because of his “decade-long terrorist activity.”

The incident appeared to end a 24-hour lull in cross-border violence that surged this week.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told mayors of southern Israeli cities under rocket attack that it was his responsibility to choose the right time to “exact the heaviest price” for the continual rocket fire from Gaza."

I wish we had a grownup in the White House as competent as Israel has in its PM residence. But wait, we decided to vote for The Liberal Choomster.

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 12:40PM

Amen to that! Problem is they are like cockroaches, in that you kill one and then thousands more come flying out from behind the wall. Nagasaki worked to perfection, though!!!!

JP Jones| 11.14.12 @ 12:00PM

This is what happens when you start thinking with the wrong head.

What makes Obama so dangerous is that he is not concerned with desires of the flesh
he simply wants to transform the world where there is no God

Now that is really what is diabolical.....
and he comes out smelling like a rose.

gene| 11.14.12 @ 12:01PM

There is One name missing in all these scandals and the fact that it is NOT being mentioned should scare the fornicating scatology out of everyone, Conservative and Liberal.
The Name? Vice President Joseph Biden.
President Nixon supposedly stated that no one would impeach him because no one would want Spiro Agnew as President. Well, some people lowered the boom on Agnew. Gerald Ford was acceptable to both parties and President Nixon resigned in disgrace. The words
"President Joseph Biden"
should terrify America and the World.
And if he is not involved in these scandals?

And he assumes the Presidency?

I have to go change my undies just typing this. If it becomes a reality, I do not know what will happen.

JP Jones| 11.14.12 @ 12:06PM

while average mortals are busy screwing each other for some temporary relief

Obama is putting the real scews to all of us

The guy to fear isn't the person who is weak by the flesh but by those who can control their desires and focus on controling others.

That is why Obama is so dangerous!

JimH| 11.14.12 @ 12:30PM

An assessment of BO from the Bard and a possible endorsement of Christie?

CAESAR

Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
ANTONY
Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman and well given.
CAESAR

Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd
Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

Al Adab| 11.14.12 @ 1:39PM

...and the fault dear frind is not in our stars but in ourselves.

Simon Templar| 11.14.12 @ 12:40PM

They have more dirt on the general and they will use it to keep his mouth shut in their closed door testimony session. The good general cares more about himself and his own skin then his own country and its fate.
He is caught up himself in the lies and he will not tell the truth, it is that simple.
He is not smart enough to know that the truth will set you free. He is too stupid to realize that he needs to bring documented proof and also admit his own lies and take the consequences in order to fix this and find redemption.

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 12:45PM

You're possibly correct, but I've had second thoughts lately. If [and a big one] he is the dedicated and semi-honorable one that he's been described as [as many military personnel are, since they don't do what they do out of selfishness], he may just get behind a congressional microphone at a table in front of a hearing committee and SPILL HIS GD GUTS OUT! Blow up the whole thing to smitherines! Wouln't it be awsome? Maybe one general can do what millions of STUPIDS failed to do on 11/4/08 and 11/6/12??????

Simon Templar| 11.14.12 @ 1:38PM

He will not. The fact that he accepted a job to serve a Marxist fraud should give you a clue as to who he really is and what he will do.
We need to stop waiting to be saved by someone.
Raise hell. Start a phone chain and call your state reps. Organize mass demonstrations in demanding truth. Keep focused on the what he did and did not do, rather than what he knew and when. People at his level are in it for a career and self promotion not necessarily to serve their nation out of selflessness like those below them.
If the GOP wants the truth, which I believe they do not, then it is in their hands and has been handed to them on a platter. The GOP has the power to force this out but they will not.

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 7:52PM

ST: You're right! I've watched this march to the edge of the cliff for approximately five years now concerning this person, and as you say, person after person has faltered. I disagree with most in that my gripe is not so much with the representatives so much as it is with the people. It all comes down to the fact/truth that the American people are STUPID. You had Scott Walker's success over the unions and then Wisconsinites turn around and pee-pee all over Romney and Ryan [one of their own, for G-d's sake]. Has the last four years of what been written here by these writers and elsewhere not being understood about who/what is in control of this nation? Sure the MSM, Hollywood etc are in their back pocket, but so what they always have been so. Its the people who have been brainwashed by their propaganda and lemmingly led to vote for him. How are you going to organize protests among those who dumbarsedly voted for him oon 11/4/08 and 11/6/12? If there is a way possible, there's only several options to my knowledge available....IMPEACHMENT and/or a MILITARY COUP [which is rediculous since it has never occurred in this country]. I refer you to the book/movie of yesteryear, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY. If the military is as disgruntled as has been reported, and if this/other generals are boiling mad over being attacked by this administration, then it may not be so far fetched!!!!

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 8:00PM

PS, ST: Remember also that this general [and others as well] KNOW with a capitol K all of the facts and the minute details of what has been occurring. This general was not only a supreme military commander of the Pentagon and these wars from the beginning, but as such and later as CIA Director as well. This guy is J Edgar Hoover on steriods as to knowledge. That is why he is currently being attacked...because he knows and the fact that he may tell what he knows. he may avoid as you say, but then again he may not. Lets wait and see!!!!!!!

Ralph Novy| 11.21.12 @ 12:11AM

They have neither the power nor the will nor the basic "spine."

Gutless blithering bitches you!

Bill8472| 11.14.12 @ 12:40PM

How does a shady "socialite" who is an immigrant from Lebanon become a "self-appointed go-between for Central Command officers and Lebanese and other Middle Eastern officials?"

What is going on with the military and our foreign service that this kind of thing is contemplated, much less implemented? Are the animals running the zoo now?"

Bill8472| 11.14.12 @ 12:42PM

It has the odor about it of the Profumo scandal in Britain a long time ago, when I was just a teenager.

Oldefarte| 11.14.12 @ 12:48PM

It happens all of the time, and it's simply the powerful seduction of illecit sexual encounters.......ask the Arkansas HillyBilly!!!!

Akaky| 11.14.12 @ 1:36PM

"...and if the media can put down their partisan pompoms long enough to do some serious reporting, Americans may soon see their president in a much less flattering light."

Pigs will fly first.

Jeff R| 11.14.12 @ 3:09PM

"If the GOP can recover enough morale to fight for the truth, and if the media can put down their partisan pompoms long enough to do some serious reporting, Americans may soon see their president in a much less flattering light."

Robert, why on earth would the mainstream media put down their pompoms and get down to the serious business of investigating and uncovering the details of this scandal? Are the media going to be shamed into jettisoning their support for anything Obama?

Not very likely.

Pat_Riot| 11.14.12 @ 5:21PM

Remember the following quote from MacArthur's farewell address? " "Duty, Honor, Country" — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." " - Just what the heck are they teaching at West Point in the 21st Century??? " "Do Me, Say Anything to Advance Me, Celebrity" is the new standard I guess... Seems that these days all of our leaders are of the "Do as I Say, Not as I Do" variety.

slkia| 11.14.12 @ 10:35PM

"That theory seems too complex and conspiratorial to me." Your concern here to distance yourself from a "conspiracy theory" is rather foolish and naive.

First, conspiracies happen all the time, and have been with us even prior to Catiline. Second, Obama is a Chicago thug, following his usual thug politics. The plot is not all that complex, and is also done all the time: discredit your opponent or a major witness against you, if not with blackmail then with fabrications. Actually, not even an element of conspiracy in the process, just simple SOP.

Besides, this approach is less messy than a horse's head in the bed.

Rhoetus| 11.14.12 @ 11:44PM

Rules for Conservatives @
http://www.saveamericanow.us.com

Ralph Novy| 11.20.12 @ 11:05PM

You little man, Stacy McCain, you.

You throw about "incompetence" as if it were a "neutral" term.

It isn't.

It's loaded.

But you're not just "oblivious" to it; you're encouraging of that sort of race-baiting bullshit.

Shame on you, you little racist punk, you.

Rethink and reform ... or your ass is grass, boy.

Ralph Novy| 11.20.12 @ 11:08PM

If you'd been around in the 1760s, around the Cumberland Gap, you'd know better.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOO..... you're too damned young and stupid to know better.

Ralph Novy| 11.21.12 @ 12:05AM

You didn't know how to respect the land.
You didn't know how to repect your neighbors.
You didn't know how to respect folks over the mount you didn't know much about.
You didn't know how to respect what your grandpa and grandma told you.
No.
You set out to "make your own" -- to "conquer all that lay before you," you nasty bully-boy bastard, didn't you?

... and proclaim it was "All-American" too, eh?

How (not so far) we've come in these 200 years, eh?

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