by Benjamin J. Kirby
First of all, you should know that we're packing up and hitting the road for Arkansas at the end of the week. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and having Emmy and Finn there with their Grandmommy, Grandaddy, cousin Hayden, Uncle Adam, Aunt Jennie, and Aunt Susie.
I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday.
So we have an eighteen to twenty hour drive in front of us, starting Friday night. We'll be back that next weekend. I'm taking the Chromebook, but I'd expect posting to be light around here.
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Couple people asked me about my thoughts on l'affair Petraeus.
It's weird. It is just weird. And that's about the best you can say about it.
There's been a lot of buzz around the question of why the guy resigned as Director of the CIA. It's a private concern between he and his wife.
That strikes me as strange and a little naive, maybe. This isn't your neighbor sleeping with the UPS delivery person. This is the man in charge of thousands of global covert operatives. He is in charge of a paramilitary organization fighting a largely secret war. He is the keeper of America's secrets, an integral link in the monumental, colossal intelligence gathering supply chain.
When I started in the Federal government in the early 1990s, the security and disclosure documents were dizzying. And that was for a GS-7 administrative assistant. What I remember most are the security interviews I went through -- and I went through several for the different positions I held. The bottom line in each? Was I involved in anything which could potentially embarrass the government?
I wish I could tell you it was more than that. It's not, really.
And that's not such a bad thing.
I doubt they'd have fired a 35-thousand dollar-a-year administrative flunky for cheating on his wife (something I never did, by the way). But I had a mundane "secret" clearance and access to virtually nothing important. A potential paramour looking to use me for access to government secrets and information would have said more about her being a lousy paramour than me being a dishonest government employee.
The Director of the CIA is a bit different.
And, for the record, it is quite clear -- maybe the only clear thing, at least today -- that there's more to this than we know.
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I wonder how much things are going to change at the Washington Post now that they're getting a new editor.
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One quick final word on some Election 2012 fall-out. You know I'm not a big fan of "winner" and "loser" lists. That being said, you have to think that the hospital grifter Governor Rick Scott is the big, big loser of Election 2012.
He took a gamble -- a big gamble -- on voter suppression. And he lost. Bad.
I actually thought he might hedge his bets a little bit and extend early voting, as Charlie Crist did before him.
He did not. And so when Obama took Florida, anyway, it was nothing but egg on his face. Lots and lots of really rotten egg. It'll be hard to wash off.
Here in Pinellas, the Supervisor of Elections still has some questions to answer. A robo-call went out informing people of where to vote... a day late.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio -- a former Supervisor of Elections herself -- has been way out front criticizing the governor for falling down on the elections job. [For the record, she is currently heading up the Hillsborough Children's Board, which is a similar organization to the one I work for here in Pinellas.]
It's pretty obvious to me this is some early noise from the popular former mayor signalling a run for governor herself.
Her entry will shake up a field that hasn't even formed yet: a return of Alex Sink, and the aforementioned Charlie Crist, this time as a Democrat. State Senator Nan Rich is already running.
And those are the Democrats. I'd be curious to know if any Republicans are hearing noises about a primary challenge to the hospital grifter.
Florida in 2014 -- it'll be the place to watch.
-- More later --
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