When there’s nothing better to do (and even when there is), folks in Washington gossip about the human parade passing through the world’s most powerful jobs. For years, the departure date and replacement for Defense secretary Robert Gates has been a prime source of speculative entertainment, but lately it’s all about General David Petraeus.

First was the word that Marine Gen. John Allen, currently number two at U.S. Central Command, would be the replacement in Afghanistan. But this week the question is, “Whither Petraeus?”