My understanding is the tip came Two Weeks BEFORE the election.
Plenty of time to Put Betrayus under oath to determine if the affair was true
And if National Security was compromised. It is not Cantors responsibility
To determine if the tip was credible or not.
That’s what committees do. The fact he notified the FBI is good.
The fact he did not refer this to his committees is bad.
Given the timing, he was probably busy running around Virginia campaigning. I’d guess nobody wanted to deal with it until “after.”
My first reaction? The “tip” was nothing more than a plant to involve the Republicans, giving Obama an opportunity (if required) to say that GOP leaders knew about it, too. And sure enough, the report in the NYT appeared right on cue, just as Republican members of Congress were wondering why the scandal remained a secret until after the election. The purpose of the NYT article is to insinuate that Cantor knew before the President.
Here’s the real story: the FBI tipster was supposedly a whistleblower, suggesting he had no confidence in the agency’s ability to conduct an unbiased investigation. And the WSJ reported last night that AG Eric Holder knew about the probe for months. Clearly, the Obama Administration was using the investigation to keep Petraeus in line and they played the card when Benghazi unfolded. Now, with his personal life in tatters, the former CIA Director conveniently can’t testify before Congress this week—and the GOP is rolling over, right on schedule.
This was clearly an inside job by the White House and I’m deeply suspicious of that “tip.” If the GOP had a spine (very doubtful), they’d bring the whistleblower in to testify as well.
One final note: the blog listed below does a good job in connecting some of the newer “dots” in the Petraeus affair, such as Paula Broadwell’s public admission (on 26 Oct) that our CIA operatives in Benghazi specifically requested an “in-extremis” force to assist them. She even provides some details on these units. Her comment seems to mesh with reports about General Ham (AFRICOM/CC) trying to send forces to Benghazi to assist the CIA guys on the ground. As the CINC, Ham had operational control of the command’s in-extremis force.
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2012/11/who-knew-petraeus-scandal-edition.html