The producer of the Kardashians may have missed out, because this is starting to sound like an reality TV DoD version of Dynasty or something. Chris Matthews had a useful graphic to keep up with the convoluted story last night, if anyone can find the clip. Of course it might not even be current by this afternoon. Meanwhile, wingnuts may have finally found something to semi-legitimately hit Obama with:

The Guardian— Both Barack Obama and the Pentagon insisted on Tuesday that they were standing by the top US commander in Afghanistan, John Allen, after he became the latest general to find himself entangled in the widening Petraeus emails scandal.

Allen is under investigation by the defence department over his communications with Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who sparked the FBI investigation that stumbled across David Petraeus’ affair after she complained about “harassing” emails that were traced to his mistress Paula Broadwell.

The Pentagon’s inspector general was examining 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, including many emails between Allen and Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison for senior officers at MacDill air force base in Tampa, home of US central command.

Some outlets at first reported 20,000 to 30,000 emails, which is surely not correct. The investigators probably printed them off and duped a lot of it by printing full threads in chronological order, i.e., pages. That’s just me guessing; it can’t be 30,000 emails over a few months, that would add up to dozens or hundreds of emails every day.

OK, why is the FBI pawing through that many personal emails again? I understand the morbid curiosity angle here, media celebs look happier than kittens playing in cream, but it seems overkill to say the least from a national security perspective.

I’ve even now heard a dem conspiracy tale wherein Petraeus faked the whole thing in a botched attempt to way lay Obama in the election. I don’t think we need any farfetched conspiracies, the gritty truth so far is sordid enough. Now would be a great time for anyone with photo shop skills to knock out a cool pseudo-poster or fake youTube preview of scenes from the next exciting installment. Don’t touch that dial!

If I could give Obama a piece of advice, it would be not to back anyone until it becomes clear who did what to whom and who is the most to blame or did the stupidest thing. Not an easy task the way this dealio is trending. It sounds like there is plenty of stupidity to go around. Not the least of which, even the FBI people involved are starting to look really, creepily nosy, and maybe even a bit unhinged. So far he’s been lucky in the sense that the people involved are falling mostly on the more conservative side of the political ledger. But if the web of intrigue widens, it’s just a matter of time before a democratic booster or congressperson comes to the fore, and the long imaginary knives will spring into action as the rightwing wurlitzer adds a rousing score to the unfolding drama.