Politics: General Confusion

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Politics General Confusion Why the Petraeus scandal isn't the national security scandal Republicans wanted. By David Weigel Posted Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012, at 01:31 AM ET It began with one FBI agent and no shirt. The downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus started in May, in Tampa, when a freelance military party planner named Jill Kelley grew fed up with some harassing emails she'd been getting from Petraeus' alleged mistress, Paula Broadwell. Kelley contacted an FBI agent, a friend so close that he had "sent shirtless photos to her." She got results, sort of, as the agent opened a cybercrimes investigation into the emails. And then the story got to Washington. The agent was "barred from the case" because, even when clothed, he seemed too obsessed with it. He called Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican whose district in the Seattle suburbs is three times zones away from Tampa. Reichert routed the agent to Rep. Eric Cantor, the majority leader in the House, to speak to someone about an issue that might have compromised classified information. On Oct. 31, four days after the contact, Cantor took the story to FBI Director Robert Mueller. By that time, both Petraeus and Broadwell had already been interviewed by the bureau. Why did the agent take this story to Republicans? According to the New York Times, the agent had an unspecified "worldview" that led him to suspect "a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama." As of today, he's totally alone in that. Republicans don't want to speculate about the Petraeus scandal. They resent that it's coming up. They want to focus on the Sept. 11 killings ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate General Confusion Microsoft Just Lost Its Steve Jobs How Jimmy Fallon Gets Such Great Musical Guests	Advertisement
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