The Elephant Not In The Petraeus Speculation Room;Why Was Romney Not Strident On Benghazi?

Speculation is of course, naturally and quite rightly, rife over the resignation of General Petraeus. Firstly one must express the greatest sympathy for him, his wife and family, and all the families involved at a most difficult and tragic time.

Beyond the personal there are questions which arise in relation to the timing of the announcement. Why just after the election? If the answer to that is that the General felt that it might influence the election result, then if that was considered by him a matter of honor it was still a political act. 

By not making the announcement it may have affected the election, as it may have raised the serious questions which the Republicans would have considered fair game during a critical period of the election. 

Thus by not making the announcement the campaign of President Obama may have been assisted.

Subsequent to the election the possibility that Gen.Petraeus may not now testify and that Sec. Clinton is advised as "not being available" to testify, muddies the waters even further.The personal appears very much to be political in this case.

The other consideration that the Republicans should also look at is, why did Mitt Romney not hit long and hard over the Benghazi tragedy? Why the quietude during the final debate, which was on foreign policy, where a hard hitting attack, without Candy Crowley to assist President Obama, may have given Romney the edge he needed to win Ohio and Florida.

Instead we saw a strangely quiescent and acquiescent Romney basically saying he agreed with President  Obama time after time. A wasted opportunity or, murkily, was Romney somehow muffled "for the good of America"? Perhaps, like Watergate, the truth, if there is something "rotten in the state of Denmark" so to speak,  will out and, like Nixon's second triumph, President Obama's will turn to ashes in due course.

In the meantime what is needed is the strongest possible voice for the Republicans to keep at this situation until it is totally clarified. If this is simply a personal tragedy, then that will come out and the political aspect will disappear. But if there is a political element, then it must be brought into the full glare of public scrutiny.

Clearly Mitt Romney is not the person for this. According to the voters at Greta van Susteren's site, the titular head of the GOP is Sarah Palin-let no one doubt that her voice would be strong and unmuffled and would press the issue to whatever conclusion it came to.