Christine M. Flowers: The Petraeus sex scandal goes from bad to verse

BY THE SHORES of

Hoochy-Coochy

By the shining Tampa

waters

Stood the wigwam of Petraeus

General of platoons, Petraeus.

Close behind him, not near Holly

Stood the source of our man's

folly

With sweet Paula did he dally

Both at home and in Pech Valley

Sad to say, our man betrayed us

Noble warrior Petraeus

He who worked with angry

Sunnis

And dismayed the Shi'ite

goonies

Soiled his honor, with a loony.

Paula was a savvy woman

Wrote a book called, ahem, "All

In,"

And like Samson's fierce Delilah

Daughter of disgrace, Delilah

Helped the fearless general sin

But his wigwam was quite busy

Sending Paula in a tizzy

When she learned of Mrs. Kelley

Who would visit . . . just a friend

Lady Broadwell didn't likey

When her own beloved Ikey

Seemed to share his martial

favors

With another that he savored

So, well-greased with

gin-and-tonics

Paula hit on Miss Platonic

Sending out her cyber libels

Hoping to undo her rival

And evict the lovely Jilly

From the wigwam, willy-nilly

Problem was, the other lady

Was indeed a little shady

But she wasn't rubbing noses

Or assuming four-star poses

With the general Paula savored

Jill was seeking different favors

Not "All In" but . . . Allen.

Oh, the tangled web we're

weaving

When to Holly's hub, we're

cleaving

And our own we are deceiving

Blinded by the wild affair

Big-eyed daughter of despair.

Paula's foolish cyber-surging

Angered Jill and, claws

emerging,

Mrs. Kelley started urging

Friends to help her out.

Certain that she had the access

To demand and order redress

For the threats and cyber excess

Jill contacted FBI

They in turn, investigated

And found out, a bit belated

That Petraeus wasn't hated

By the Big-Eyed Broad(well)

Steamy messages abounded

From the wigwam, groans

resounded

But Petraeus was surrounded

By Obama's friends.

No one leaked the information

Of sweet David's recreation

Could have stopped the

coronation

Of the Prez and all his men

Still, the CIA was under

Microscopes and, little wonder

That the head spy's major

blunder

Caused the noble myth to end

That the man was truly flawless

That his acts could not appall us

And that he who stood the

tallest

Couldn't to such depths

descend.

If this were a private matter

Tawdry, chick-lit, porno-chatter

We would all be much the

sadder

But the country would survive.

But therein lies our great

problem

With this hero late of Bagram

Who allowed a hubris harem

To endanger citizens

We know not if information

Gathered to protect our nation

Was in cyber circulation

Tawdry pillow talk.

Furthermore, we aren't certain

And for this, we're truly hurtin'

What effect immoral actions

Had on Libya.

Stevens was assassinated

Consulates eviscerated,

While the government debated

Sending in support.

Was the scandal a distraction?

Did this fatal, sick attraction

Add to negligent inaction

Causing four to die?

We might never know the story

Of the general's shattered glory

Never fully have the gory

Truth, and consequence

But we owe it to the fallen

Those who answered when we called them

To demand of generals, all in

That they act with grace

To betray a spouse is sickening

And a private sin, needs

reckoning

Just between the two, some

counseling

And apology

To betray a country, wretched

For the millions left dejected

And the recklessness reflected

As the halo dims.

Great Petraeus was Aurelius

Caesar, Washington, Augustus

We believed he was fidelus

Foolishly, we see.

There have always been

betrayals

Men and women, lacking morals

But this time, it hurts much

more

As, quietly, we grieve.