Washington — Sex remains the surest prop for all that is funny … and sad. In the first instance, we often call the result ribaldry. In the second instance, it is always called tragedy.

General David Petraeus has, in war, been a hero. In public service, too, he was a national asset. But toward the end of his soldiering, his life is now cast in doubt. As the head of CIA, the doubt has increased. Almost certainly, as director of central intelligence, he was no Dick Helms or Bill Casey. Those names from a better era illuminate the dreariness of this tawdry episode, and I hope it is merely tawdry, not anything more than that. Certainly, it could not be the national betrayal spoken of by Ben Stein this week at Spectator.org, could it?