The ingredients are so painfully predictable—the man is
older, powerful, well-known. The wife is
also older, but for her age does not lend a cache of charm, but a burden of
being (perhaps) past her prime. She has
been the home base while the general fought wars overseas. True, she has her own career, and has made
contributions working on alleviating the needs of military families. Oh, how ironic.
The other woman is younger, in need of a mentor, and—I wouldn’t
be surprised—adept at charming the older man with flattery. As the story is told, she made the initial
contact with the general, and eventually got herself embedded (the irony piles
up) with the military in Afghanistan while she worked to expand her doctoral dissertation
into a full length book. With the recent
revelations of “the affair” sales of the book have soared.
As for the other “other” woman, nothing is known—except that
she apparently received threatening anonymous emails. Because of their nature, it seems she
contacted the FBI. And thus began the
investigation that unraveled the situation.
Of course, her presence does raise a niggling question—why was she
perceived as a threat to the erstwhile mistress? Don’t even want to go there.
Do you hear echoes of similar recent stories? The New York Times chronicled the sad litany
of some of the name of those involved in these affairs—Alexander Hamilton,
Warren Harding, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Baines
Johnson. And that doesn’t even bring us
to the current transgressors—Gary Hart, William Clinton, David Vitter, John
Ensign, Mark Souder, Anthony Weiner, John Edwards. I even edited this list to shorten it!So, what’s the lesson? That power attracts? That forbidden fruit is just too tempting? That great men fall? That we are all flawed? That in a digital age, there is no such thing as secrecy?
The truth is—I don’t know.
I do know that this particular revelation made me especially sad—sad for
all involved.
11 comments:
Very sad, indeed. I see it happen in both civic and religious leadership. I think your next-to-last paragraph pretty much sums up my thoughts about the lessons, in a nutshell.
One lesson for men is: don't put yourself in the path of temptation, for you are vulnerable.
I believe that men who gain so much power begin to think of themselves as above all the rules. Everyone around them has told them how wonderful they are that they begin to believe that they deserve what they want when they want it.
I must admit that there is a little part of me that says that if no laws were broken, the whole thing is between the man and his wife and none of our business. Of course, his being the head of our country's intelligence makes it our business.
I, too, was saddened more by this than by most of the others.
What is it with these men? I think it's time we let the women run things. Strong women (like the newly elected Elizabeth Warren) could teach those men a lot ...
It is very sad. I don't understand folks. I really don't.
Well, it's just plain sin, something we don't talk about too much these days.
The Tampa Bay Times reads like the National Enquirer these last couple of days. www.tampabay.com. The "other" woman is something else...she has quite a history. I won't even begin to write anything about it.
I grieve for our nation. Ths has made headlines, and, of course, on all the entertainment shows...but what about the four men who died in Behghazi (sp?)
Maybe for every man in a powerful position we should assign an auxiliary post for his penis, since they seem to operate independently anyway. Secretary of Aroused State, Leaker of the House. That sort of thing.
Based on your various comments--sadness, avoiding temptation, the need for privacy yet accountability--this story has raised many thoughts and concerns.
Beverly says--just plain sin. Well, true, yet then why isn't every married man everywhere in like circumstance? And yet that does not happen. Which brings me back to puzzlement--why some men and not others.
NCMountainWoman--yes, powerful men do appear to begin to think they are inviolable, yet not all stray.
Ginnie's suggestion--strong women in power. It would certainly help, but we also know that women can fail too.
And--Murr--thank you for bringing your wonderful humor to this otherwise sober saddened conversation. An auxiliary post indeed. I must say that I hadn't realized that when a reporter is embedded with the troops, she really is EMBEDDED.
Just this morning I saw a ten-minute discussion on CNN about whether or not the media had paid too much attention to this issue. Sadly, none of them seemed aware of the irony of their discourse.
Raising my hand that it made me sad, too. Because "the other woman" lives here, we get a double dose of coverage.
I didn't realize that women were that attracted to power. Military groupies?
What do you think--too many heterosexuals in the military?
Oh Mary Lee--funny. Jon Stewart did a wonderful review of too many heterosexuals in the military...at least I think it was Jon, or maybe one of his talented staff.
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