afghanistan is worse off. he's supervised the predator explosion and the missiles and into not only pakistan and also afghanistan and he's exacerbated the entire region and the people who are there are going to hate us more so for civilian damage, collateral damage. on top of it, you know, he's built up this reputation. first of all, as a military man, i really think he's overdoing it as a showman because he goes in front of congress to talk about the counterinsurgencies wearing, if you noticed, the ribbons grow every year. he's got now like a regular fruit salad up here. amazing amount. and it's disgusting. general marshall, one of the greatest heroes of world war ii, is famous for being a modest man, going in front of congress and wearing hardly anything. >> he had this reputation of king david. >> very much so. >> a lot of people in the forces. didn't always mean it as a compliment. meant as he was slightly regal. >> america values success. what's success in iraq and afghanistan? can you tell me? he's left

she spent a year with petraeus in afghanistan for the book he wrote. cnn has not been able to reach broadwell for a comment and it's not clear whether she is the woman whom petraeus had the affair. the counterintelligence unit investigated the tip to see if there was a security risk. they said tl not suggestion that the fbi was investigating for wrong doing. the concern was that he could be in a vulnerable spot. >> and is there any information that you have in terms of this information that the fbi had as to whether this woman that you mentioned, paula broadwell, we'll talk more about her, that she would have accessed his information with his approval or unbeknowest to him? >> i know the two kept in touch. i've worked with paula professionally as well. i've reached out to her several times today and haven't gotten a response, but we know they continue to talk frequently. >> all right. thank you very much. suzanne's going to stay with us and just to let our viewers know, paula broadwell has been a regular guest on this program. we reached out to her as

you see that in other parts of afghanistan and iraq. so people like al jabari who is not exactly mother theresa. this guy is a mass murderer with blood on his hands, killing numerous children and women and basically the world is a better place with people like him out of the system. >> ambassador, thank you for coming in. good to see you. >>> coming up next, fighting in the middle east is sparking fresh protests in new york tonight. what is the battle between israel and hamas mean for america? fareed zakaria joins me live coming up next. >>> that is exactly -- all >>> that is exactly -- all right, i'm going to move out of the way, i'm going to let you get a look here. i'm going to let you get a look at what is going on. now, i can see the black smoke. it's difficult to capture on camera but you saw that flash. this is what we have been dealing with all day. we've also been dealing with, i'm sorry, the power has just gone out. we've been dealing with power outages, wolf, but this feels like war. >> terrifying moment there. that's cnn's s

you see that in other parts of afghanistan and iraq. so people like al jabari who is not exactly mother theresa. this guy is a mass murderer with blood on his hands, killing numerous children and women and basically the world is a better place with people like him out of the system. >> ambassador, thank you for coming in. good to see you. >>> coming up next, fighting in the middle east is sparking fresh protests in new york tonight. what is the battle between israel and hamas mean for america? fareed zakaria joins me live coming up next. by not breaking consider the silverado 1500 -- still the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. and now we've also been recognized for lowest total cost of ownership -- based on important things, like depreciation, fuel, and maintenance costs. and now trade up to get a 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition with a total value of $9,000. from outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it g

and meanwhile, what is he doi i in afghanistan years later? it amadness. >> there is a theory, general mcarthur and patton and they all had affairs. it is modern digital media unvaf elling all of this stuff. >> i don't think the problem is that the general had an affair. he was director of the cia and he walked into one of the black mailable situations that he could have. it is not that he is a general messing around. according to the code of military justice that is not allowed. the press is focused on the director of the cia having this problem. >> perhaps the biggest story today is benghazi blowing up again. pushing very, very hard now getting vicious in the rhetoric towards ambassador rice and so on. what do you think she was merely passing on intelligence and therefore if she wants to make secretary of state, she can do it. >> i was the host and we were trying to get the secretary of state to talk about benghazi. and she didn't go out. didn't she make herself a key player? >> and she could have said look, we believe there are a number of

military commander in afghanistan. john allen is now under investigation for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to jill kelley. yes, the same woman who claims she received threatening e-mails from petraeus' mistress paula broadwell. and we're not just talking about a couple of e-mails. pentagon investigators are coming through 20 to 30,000 pages of documents. with me now is retired u.s. army general and cnn contributor spider marks joining me via skype from virginia. when you look at the sheer number of documents that they're looking at, 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, how do you react to that? what was your first thought? >> well, if true, if it is that type of volume of traffic, this is one busy guy spending a lot of time talking to an honorary ambassador between the community and tampa in the air force base. he's got a lot of discretionary time on his hand and, frankly, that's not the case. so it's very, very troubling to see that an individual like this would at least put himself in a situation where the

a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns and then met with families who lost loved ones in the iraq and afghanistan wars. >>> lawmakers have pointed questions about the fbi's investigation into general petraeus' extramarital affair. they want to know why they weren't told, and they want to know if national security was breached. peter king talked to candy crowley today. >> it seems that this has been going on for several months and now appears that the fbi did not realize until election day that general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up. >> petraeus resigned from the post as cia director friday and mitt head had an affair. and then sources said that the affair was with whiz biographer paula broadwell. more on that in a few moments. >>> bipartisan agreement appears to be in the work. charles schumer and lindsey graham says that their path including a tough love to citizenship. they teamed up in 2010, and that plan went nowhere, but the republicans may have fresh motivation after election losses last week. >>> death toll from superstorm sandy has climbed to 113 with two more deaths report

meanwhile what is petraeus doing in afghanistan a fuel years later? it is madness. >> there is a theory that, look, we had great generals, macarthur, patton, eisenhowers, jfk, clinton, so on, all had affairs. modern digital era unraveling all this stuff that is the problem? what do you sty that? >> i don't think the idea, the problem is that general petraeus had an affair. the idea and the big problem is that he was director of the cia and he walked right into one of the most blackmailable situations that you can v good that the fbi found out about it before the russians or the chinese. that is the problem. not that he is a general mess egg around and certainly even though according to the uniform code of military justice, that's not allowed, that's not what the press is focused on. the press is focused on the director of the cia having this problem. >> perhaps the biggest story today is benghazi, blowing up again. republicans, john mccain and lindsey graham and others pushing very, very hard now, getting very vicious in their rhetoric toward ambassad

you see that in other parts of afghanistan and iraq. so people like al jabari who is not exactly mother theresa. this guy is a mass murderer with blood on his hands, killing numerous children and women and basically the world is a better place with people like him out of the system. >> ambassador, thank you for coming in. good to see you. >>> coming up next, fighting in the middle east is sparking fresh protests in new york tonight. what is the battle between israel and hamas mean for america? fareed zakaria joins me live coming up next. ...mom's smartphone... dad's tablet... or lauren's smartphone... at&t has a plan built to help make families' lives easier. introducing at&t mobile share. one plan lets you share data on up to 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. add a tablet for only $10 per month. at&t. it's the cleanest, clearest water. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster that we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobster's crabfest! the only time of year you can savor 5 succulent crab entrees, all under 20

i'm master of arms second class alexandra lewis in bagram, afghanistan. i want to say happy thanksgiving to my son, terroristan, and all my friends and family in lubbock, texas. thank you to my brother for the support. i couldn't have done it without you guys. i love you, and i'll see you soon. ♪ ♪ ...or you can get out there with your friends and actually share something. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is on, offering some of our best values of the year. this is the pursuit of perfection. offering some of our best values of the year. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions

he says that iraq and afghanistan veterans may finally have found their political voice. >> and i think that a lot of people have come home, really established themselves in their communities, become leaders, you know, in business, in public service, within their communities and have now been having a lot more success running for office. >> reporter: despite the influx of 9/11 era veterans into congress, the overall number of veterans is declining. both the house and the senate will have fewer veterans this year than last. democrat tammy duckworth lost both of her legs in iraq, and she has just won a seat in congress. she believes the downturn is a moment in history. >> the giants, the lions of the world war ii generation step away, and the korean war generation steps away, and when the last of the vietnam vets, as they begin to retire, now you go to the all volunteer force, and there are just fewer of us in general. >> reporter: duckworth says she has spent a lifetime in service, and she believes that service is what has helped her and other veterans win their races for elected office.

rajiv, you've covered the war in afghanistan extensively. did you get invited on trips with david petraeus, how well did you know him and how well -- >> i covered him off and on first back in iraq when he was a division commander up in northern iraq and more recently when he was top commander of all u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan and in that later job i did travel around the country with him. he would give remarkable access to journalists. oftentimes it was under very strict ground rules that things were off the record but he did open himself up to press coverage because he thought it was important for the mission to get recognized out there, but also i believe because he also liked to see himself at the center of the coverage. >> so that remarkable access paid dividends for petraeus's image. would you say, would you argue with the notion that many of the jurmts who dealt with him, who know him, have tended to go easy on him on this unfortunate scandal? >> i think some have. others have been a little harder edged and fairer, but, look.

america's top commander in afghanistan. he was set to become the nato supreme commander, until the president put that nomination on hold today. like petraeus, allen is at the top of the american military. he's a four-star general. one of only four four-star generals in the entire u.s. marine corps. officials are investigating general john allen after finding allegedly inappropriate e-mails between general allen and jill kelley. the same jill kelley who had contacted the fbi about receiving harassing e-mails from petraeus biographer and former mistress, paula broadwell. allen, who once worked for petraeus at the u.s. central command, denies any wrongdoing as investigators look through 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents. now, i want to make it clear what we know at this time is that it's not clear how many of those documents may include potentially inappropriate communication. but the new allegations have raised serious questions tonight about the culture of relationships in the military, and we're going to have more on that

general john allen, the top commander in afghanistan who, by the way, says he did not have an affair. >> you have two four-star generals involved here. several women involved. one set of twins and a guy, a shirtless guy from the fbi. don't you miss the simplicity of the clinton years? >> well, dave, here's a little simplicity. nancy pelosi is keeping her job. >> i made a decision to submit my name to, once again, serve as the house democratic leader. >> now, if she can only get those talking points straight. >> we did not have majority, but we had the gavel. excuse me, we don't have the gavel. >> somebody who seems to have the gop gavel, louisiana governor bobby jindal, the likely 2016 contender told republicans this week "stop being the stupid party." meanwhile, steven colbert told us to stop talking about 2016. >> do you think it's too early to talk about 2016? we don't think so. >> okay, fine, we'll go back to 2012. why do some folks want to go back to the 1860s? >> this is a petition asking the government to what alabama succeed from the union. >> that's right from alabama, alaska

petraeus is a highly respected, retired four-star general who commanded forces in both iraq and afghanistan. he was sworn in to run the cia a little over a year ago with vice president biden with his wife holly at his side. that was the swearing in. they've been married 35 years, have two grown kids. so how will this revelation exact the u.s. intelligence community? joining me now is fran townsend and bob baer and suzanne kelly. suzanne, what more can you tell us about the probe into the relationship with paula broadwell? do we know how long this has been going on? >> we don't know how long it was going on, but just the -- so they're the ones that would look into accusations of inappropriate access to classified information. individuals that hold clearances, are they doing what they need to be doing to make sure that information stays safe? is there any opportunity whatsoever that that information could be exploited by either a spy or anyone else who shouldn't have access to that information. so the fact that they were the ones looking into this, tells you that, you know, they were concerne

commander in afghanistan. was nominated to become nato's supreme commander as well. he has denied any wrongdoing. so, how are these people linked to the scandal? how are they connected? follow us. we'll try to explain this. general patreaus resigned after admitting to having an extra marital affair with paula broadwell. a friend jill kelley asked to investigate harassing e-mails see whas receiving from paula broadwell. the "wall street journal" saying the fbi agent who initiated the investigation at kelli's request is under scrutiny. the agent has not been identified but allegedly sent kelley shirtless photos of himself. started with a complaint about harassing e-mails. he here's what we know about the woman who made that complaint, jill kelley, married to a cancer surgery, she has three daughters, lived in tampa, well-known among washington social circles. they have been friends with general patreaus and his family for five years. friends describe kelley as an innocent victim about e-mails accuse kelley of flirting with patreaus. how does this impact the careers of

> gaza is not afghanistan. >> the terrorists are hiding, they are hiding behind kids. they are hiding within hospitals. that's a terrorist act. the people who are killing those kids are the hamas. it's the palestinians killing their own kids, let's be very clear about that. there is a right and wrong. terror is wrong. defending yourself is right. >> after decades of american companies moving jobs overseas, there is something that happened today that is absolutely incredible. and we are going to tell about you it. if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nick

broadwell talked about being in general petraeus' inner circle in afghanistan. >> and i was embedded with general petraeus in afghanistan and it was a little confusing for some of the folks there because i'm also a military reservice, so a will the of my former peers didn't know how to treat me. was i major broadwell or journalist broadwell? i had to follow very clear lines of disclosure. i felt like i was held to a higher level of accountability because i could lose my clearance, yet i was entrust ed on this opportunity to sit in with meetings with general petraeus, listen to classified chatter of terrorist talk. >> boy. terrorist talk. just chatter. i'll just sit in on that. that's kind of a big deal. so from all we know, the affair between these two began after his time in afghanistan, about two months into general petraeus' tenure at the cia and ended earlier this year. are you still with me? i know this is extraordinary, but this scandal seems to get bigger by the day. the details are fast and furious. but here's one thing you can be sure of. the demands for a congressional inve

commander in afghanistan. and this is a critical time, as president obama figures out what to do with those remaining 68,000 combat troops, u.s. troops set to leave afghanistan by the end of 2014. the thing is, as the hill, as democrats and republicans come back to the hill this week, the confirmation hearing for general joseph dunford who is set to replace general allen, that was scheduled for thursday, as well. and it will go ahead as planned, even though the confirmation hearing has been delayed. >> brianna "the washington post" has a report speculating who may replace secretary of state hillary clinton, and also who may move in to the defense department. what can you tell us about that. >> that's right. so a lot of people, zoraida, as you know, were talking about senator kerry, perhaps he might be someone who would replace hillary clinton. everyone knew that this was a position that perhaps he had his eye on in 2008, and hillary clinton took that position. but, "the post" is reporting that president obama

> gaza is not afghanistan. >> the terrorists are hiding, they are hiding behind kids. they are hiding within hospitals. that's a terrorist act. the people who are killing those kids are the hamas. it's the palestinians killing their own kids, let's be very clear about that. there is a right and wrong. terror is wrong. defending yourself is right. >> after decades of american companies moving jobs overseas, there is something that happened today that is absolutely incredible. and we are going to tell about you it. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help

commander in afghanistan. there are reports that there may be as many as 20,000 to 30,000 documents linking kelley to allen. general allen served as deputy commander, and for a short time, temporary commander, at u.s. central command here in tampa. that from 2010 to 2012. now we know kelley had a social relationship and friendship with general petraeus during that time, but we don't know what, if any, kind of relationship kelley had with allen when he served in tampa. we do know that the kelley family has hired abe lowe to represent them. he is an attorney that is known for his past representation of president bill clinton and jack abramoff, also john edwards. we also know the kelley family has hired judy smith. that's a crisis manager, that has previously worked with monica lewinsky. so if that gives you an idea of who the kelley family now has representing them, it could say a lot about what may be contained in those 20,000 to 30,000 documents. >> so, i should mention. it's 20,000 to 30,000 pages of document

general mcchrystal from the time he was appointed to the head of the forces in afghanistan is from the very moment of his confirmation hearing, he and the white house are in this back and forth and it is actually long before "rolling stone" story for him and his aides to backlash, but it is having deadly consequences for the men at the bottom of the hill. >> and it must be a huge distraction for them, because my brother is fighting over there, and it is a total distraction, isn't it? >> yes, it is. with the petraeus story breaking, we had a book launch on saturday night, and a lot of the troops in the book came, and a lot of the gold star moms and gold star wives, and when petraeus was mentioned, it was an incredulousness, and these men served in an area of the village where they would not see women for months. >> and there was the boss having an affair. >> yes, and it was so bad that they felt that women do not exist anymore and there was a female helicopter who would buzz over them, and they would all run over, because they wanted to hear her voice, because they were convinced that s

she has spent a year in afghanistan with petraeus. here is a picture from their website. right now the cia is investigating a tip that she is the other woman. she is the woman named in that fbi tape. petraeus has not admitted an affair directly with her. but he said, yesterday afternoon, i went to the white house and asked the president to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as d/cia. after being married for over 37 years, i showed extreme poorly judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. this afternoon, the president graciously accepted my resignation. author of "the secrets of the fbi," and suzanne kelly. let's start with suzanne kelly. this is a massive blow, really, to everybody in the white house, to general petraeus, to his wife and to the country. the country has lost one of its great military men in scandalous circumstances. >> you know, piers, that's absolutely right. the first shock was he admitted to having an affair. this is someone

spent a year over in afghanistan. so, you know, in washington, unfortunately, any sort of competent woman has that sort of access and is successful there, is bound to be snipping and gossiping. i don't think anybody took it seriously. he seemed beyond reproach. he worked incredible hard, incredibly confident. dianne feinstein called his resignation tragic. i think that's right. it's a real loss to the country. this aside, right. so you asked suzanne when would the white house have known? whenever the fbi opens an investigation of a narrow fishl, they have to make notifications of that, especially if there is some counterintelligence concern. we've heard that would have wen to jim clap either who would have notified the national security adviser or chief of staff. they would have been aware of this, because of the very concern of a breach of some sort of national security information that they were investigating. >> >>. >> bob, i know you say this is an extraordinary event. the fact that they were investigating, does t

forces in iraq and afghanistan. he was also considered by some to be a possible presidential candidate. cnn military analyst james spider marks talked with me earlier about petraeus' legacy. >> it's terribly unfortunate. i do know general dave petraeus. in fact, we knew each other in high school and certainly at west point and then i had the great good fortune of serving along him in a number of assignments to include combat in iraq early on and paula broadwell was a young officer who worked for me about a decade ago, and she's just immensely gifted, bright, talented, fit, a great representative of the very best our nation brings forward. so you have these two incredibly gifted folks, and they make a human frailty, but at the end of the day leadership is all about competence and character, and in the case of dave petraeus, no one, no one would challenge his competence. that's a matter of record. but at the end of the day his character indicated a bit of a frailty, and i would suspect he probably didn't have somebody

we know she made a number of trips to afghanistan. she certainly had access to members at all levels of the u.s. military. and so, it's not clear where she got it from. presumably, it's part of the continuing fbi investigation. >> such a crucial question and what about this? you're a member of the cia external advisory. you have top security clearance on some things. she had top security clearance. what does that men in practice? >> paula broadwell was also a reservice in the u.s. army and so, when she was doing her mission as in reservice, she had access to classified material for that purpose, but when you have a clearance, it doesn't mean you have access to all information. she has to have a need to know. certainly as a journalist, she did not have access and her clearance did not apply, so the question is how did she come into possession of this material and even though you may be exposed to classified information, it's a whole different thing to have retained it because you have to have the authority to retain classified informat

gaza is not afghanistan. >> the terrorists are hiding, they are hiding behind kids. they are hiding within hospitals. that's a terrorist act. the people who are killing those kids are the hamas. the palestinians killing their own kids. let's be very clear about that. there is a right and wrong. terror is wrong. defending yourself is right. >> as always, let us know what you think about that. >>> now let's check in with anderson cooper with a look at what's coming up on "ac 360." hi, anderson. >> hey, erin. we're live from gaza city tonight. we will be joined by wolf blitzer, who is live in jerusalem. also correspondents throughout the region. we have correspondents in egypt, also along the israeli border with gaza in some hard-hit towns like ashkelon that have been receiving so many of those hamas rockets. we've got, as i said, our correspondents all over the entire region. want to bring you the absolute latest information that we can. new explosions here late this evening, early this morning, here in gaza city to tell you about that. our breaking news which we will

and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. we don't let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. so if you're one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. >>> welcome back. we start the second half of our sh

humiliate his wife any further, cause any further embarrassment to his grown children, one who is an afghanistan veteran. this, i think, is classic petraeus trying to control what is going on around him. >> on november 25th, a writer for the daily beast website listing general petraeus' rules for life. number 5, we will all make mistakes. the key is to recognize them and admit them, to learn from them and take off the rearview mirrors, drive on and avoid making them again. quite extraordinary given that was just written a few days ago. thank you very much, indeed. a man who worked closely with general petraeus in iraq, mr. brenner talks about the shocking o >>> with each hour, we learn new details about the shocking affair that forced david petraeus to resign as cia director. he was on the ground the same time as the former ambassador was ambassador of iraq, and the ambassador joins me now. nice to see you, ambassador. >> nice to be with you. >> are you shocked by these revelations today? >> of course, i am. it's a sad day particularly for mrs. petraeus and for their children and for the men and

petraeus is a highly respected, four-star general who commanded forces in both iraq and afghanistan. he was sworn in to run the cia a little over a year ago with vice president biden with his wife holly at his side. that was the swearing in. they've been married 35 years, have two grown kids. so how will this revelation impact the committee? member of the cia's external advisory committee, and also cnn's officer, and intelligence correspondent. susan, let's start with you. what can you tell us about this probe with paula broadwell. what would the fbi have been looking for, and do we know how long this was going on for? >> we don't know how long it was going on, but just the -- so they're the ones that would look into classification, they look into hold clearances. are they doing what they need to be doing to make sure that information stays safe. is there any opportunity that that information could be exploited by either a spy or anyone else who shouldn't have access to that information. so the fact they were the ones looking into this tells us they were concerned about some e-mail t

troops in afghanistan. they're in a war right now. >> wolf, that's the point, is that we have soldiers, marines, we have our service members in combat. that's what's most important, and general john allen has a job to do over in afghanistan. the morale of the fighting force is fine. they're going to go through any mission they have to do. they'll stay absolutely focused on those tasks. inside of dave petraeus' world, this is a matter of great shame, and he has let down the service he's been a part of for the last 40 years. he obviously lost his bearings, lost the grip on his values, made this terrible mistake and now he's got to live with that. that certainly has a message. as a result of those challenges and some other challenges with general officers, the secretary of defense has announced we're going to have a values review for the senior leaders in our military. >> same question to you about the fbi. you served a long career in the fbi. you have a shirtless fbi agent, his picture circulating out there.

commander in afghanistan. general john allen and the manner has been referred to the defense department inspector general. that official said the department is reviewing tens of thousands of e-mails and that inappropriate behavior with general seth the air force base for she did volunteer work for the story gets stranger and there is no denying david petraeus had all. a seat at the top of u.s. intelligence and a long marriage to the father two children, now adults. why did he put all that on the line by having an extramarital affair? only he can answer that question. history will forever note he was forced from power by his behavior and in that respect he is not a long. here is marcus' average. >> reporter: politics and sex scandals are nothing new. they date back to our country's beginning. >> if we wanted to see what our founding fathers behavior was like in philadelphia in 1776, we may not like all the answers. loss >> reporter: more recently, president john f. kennedy's affairs were notorious. lyndon johns

his personal power and influence and the information intelligence that was in his head about iraq, afghanistan, al qaeda, all of it. while the younger troops may have seen him as a role model, an awful a lot of his peers, candy, thought he was a little too interested in his own image and a little too big for his britches. >> that's interesting. a wrap-up on this. there's this talk about, you know, being pushed. let's have a watergate-style investigation into benghazi, into what happened in terms of the information that the cia had, what it did or didn't say that became part of the talking points that were eliminated. what do you think? >> well, you know, harry reid, the democratic leader in the senate, had an interesting answer when somebody said this week should there be a blue ribbon commission to look at what happened in benghazi? he said no. simple answer, no. i do think there is this question that people are going to keep raising, does the petraeus resignation and the controversy over what happened in benghazi, where there was a lot of cia activity, are those two things related? that ques

. >> meanwhile, the top general in afghanistan allegedly caught red-handed exchanging flirtatious e-mails of his own with jill kelley. plus the debut of my new cnn colleague, the culinary superstar who will dine on anything, anthony bowurdane is here. joining me is barbara starr and intelligence correspondent, suzanne kelly. welcome back to you both. every night i say right off the top, can any of us get our heads round this and how much more ridiculous can it get, and lo and behold, it gets more ridiculous. barbara starr, let's try and get to what we believe to be the facts behind all the kind of lurid, titillating headlines. a second general today, petraeus' successor in afghanistan, general john allen, a marine corps four star general, current nominee to be the new nato supreme allied commander, so a very big fish indeed in the military. he is apparently at the center of a scandal involving 30,000 documents, all pages or e-mails or whatever that he exchanged with this second woman, the other other woman, jill kelley. what do we know about the content of this? because it's not as simple

commander in afghanistan who is nominated to become nato's supreme commander. he has denied any wrong doing. >>> well, this is supposed to be his time to shine, and now only after a week after the re-election he has his hands full, of course, with the scandal as well. how is it going to, if it is, going to overshadow his initiatives? we'll ask our own fareed zakaria up next. oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right b