The Republican Petraeus Obsession is All About Impeaching Obama

Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 03:12 pm

Republicans have quickly shifted from licking their election defeat wounds to trying to tie the David Petraeus’ affair to Benghazi in order to impeach President Obama.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the Petraeus resignation are running wild on the right. A FoxNews.com story is typical of the right’s obsession with the time of the CIA director’s resignation, “Washington is still reeling from the resignation of General David Petraeus as head of the CIA just days before he was supposed to testify on Capitol Hill about what the CIA knew about the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi on September 11, and when it knew it. The many questions surrounding that scandal-including why the FBI was reading the CIA director’s emails and Petraeus’s mistress’s bizarre claims about a secret prison in the Benghazi CIA annex — just add to the picture of an Obama administration out of control on national security—and the conclusion that someone knowingly put an American ambassador at risk to his life; left him there to die; and then lied about it afterwards.”

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On the television side Fox News contributor John Bolton claimed that Eric Holder knew about the affair months ago, and took the conspiracy to the next level by asking, “Did the attorney general sit on this information for two months?”

Fox News contributor Dana Perino sat down with Fox and Friends and floated the conspiracy that Obama forced Petraeus because he was about to testify on Benghazi, “I don’t think anybody throws away their 37-year marriage on national television to cover up for a White House on an issue like Benghazi. That doesn’t make sense to me. However, is it plausible that they said, ‘do this or we will expose you’? And he said, ‘I’ll expose myself.”

It is obvious where they are going with this.

The Petraeus resignation is part of an Obama cover up that if exposed will bring down his presidency.

Having learned nothing from when they tried to do this to Bill Clinton during his second term, Republicans are actively looking for a way to impeach President Obama.

You’ll notice that two of the three people quoted above served in the Bush administration. (WMD and Valarie Plame, anyone?) The other thing that each of these conspiracies have in common is that they are being floated by Fox News. After Romney’s crushing defeat last week, Fox News is standing by on the ready with exactly what their audience needs. An insane conspiracy that will allow them to retreat back into their bubble and ignore reality. Just like in 2008 when Glenn Beck and his political alternate universe rose to fame after Obama won, Petraeus and Benghazi are 2012’s right wing retreat from reality.

After losing elections, paranoid conspiracy theories are Republican comfort food used to soothe the fractured psyche of those who got a taste of what ‘Real America’ actually thinks of them.

If anyone thought the GOP rank and file would learn any lessons from their latest defeat, think again.

The GOP rank and file fueled by their media and with several radical House Republicans at the ready are set to launch another jihad against reality.

How are Republicans responding to Obama winning reelection?

By trying to make the case for impeaching the President of the United States.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association