Metro

He betrayed us on two fronts

Mother always said the bigger they are, the harder they fall. If ever there was any doubt, the stunning case of CIA boss David Petraeus dispels it.

The most important and celebrated military leader of our time has fallen from the sky with a thud that is shaking all of Washington. His personal life and career are in tatters, but that is not the whole story. Not by a long shot.

Petraeus, once talked about as presidential timber, played a big part in the administration’s misleading narrative surrounding the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. That we now know he was under investigation by the FBI for an affair and a security breach when he told congressional leaders that the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim video adds a level of intrigue that is extraordinary even for the spooky world of the CIA.

Before that briefing, the State Department had evidence that the attack was carried out by an al Qaeda offshoot, a fact that led some members of Congress to suggest Petraeus was parroting the White House political line. His confession of the affair and the FBI probe give that suggestion new meaning because he could have had an ulterior motive for being a team player.

The timing of his departure is also more than a little curious. How convenient for President Obama that, the White House says, he was “briefed” on the matter only Thursday — two days after he won re-election.

Is that when he first learned of it? Having a scandal of this magnitude emerge during the campaign would have been bad for the president, so he and his team had a motive for delaying the resignation.

Timing also figures into the matter of Petraeus’ scheduled testimony about the Benghazi attack to Congress next Wednesday. It’s unlikely that will happen now because he is so tainted that his credibility is shattered. Again, how convenient that he will be silenced.

Still, questions about his conduct could make the congressional probes into the Sept. 11 anniversary attack extra contentious. Before this, even some top Senate Democrats signed on to demands that the administration come clean about what it knew and when it knew it.

The Benghazi attack was already a major national security scandal, and the Petraeus bombshell could cast a shadow over the start of Obama’s second term.

“I believe everything. And I believe nothing. I suspect everyone. And I suspect no one.”

So said Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. His zany approach turns out to be a perfect guide for getting to the bottom of the horror in Benghazi and the flameout of David Petraeus, former hero.

With wife, Holly, last year

Blueblood Bloomberg has ice in his veins

Tommy Lasorda, the colorful former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, once proclaimed his team loyalty by saying, “If you cut me, I bleed Dodger blue.”

Mike Bloomberg can make no similar claim about New York. The mayor clearly loves the city and has done many good things for it, but his lack of emotional connection to everyday New Yorkers keeps coming back to haunt him. The missing link reveals itself at the worst possible times.

Bloomberg’s performance during the aftermath of Sandy has ranged from mediocre to awful. The marathon debacle was in a class of its own, but his daily briefings have a droning quality and offer little more than process points and updates others have given him. He is acting more like a clearinghouse of information than a leader of a wounded city.

There is no fire, no anger, no show of emotion. His matter-of-fact approach is business-as-usual for him at a time when the extraordinary is required.

It’s not just a matter of style. All his moves seem to be behind the curve, as though he doesn’t have enough information or he is waiting until public anger boils over.

This is not a call for him to be somebody he’s not. It’s too late in his life for that.

But would it hurt to show some emotion about what has happened in Queens and Brooklyn and Staten Island? The death and destruction, and the continuing suffering of people who lost everything except their lives, marks an event that will live on forever in Gotham history.

It is impossible to imagine the great mayors seeming so small in such a big crisis. La Guardia, Koch and Giuliani, whom I regard as the best modern mayors, all had a visceral connection to the city. Their voice was the voice of New York and when they were cut, they bled New York blood.

Mike Bloomberg doesn’t have it in him.

It’s MetroCard monte

A great salesman once explained his approach. You never ask a potential customer if she would like a tube of lipstick, he said, you ask her which color she likes best. When she answers, she has done the selling for you.

The MTA must have heard the same explanation. At its hearings on proposed fare hikes, the agency is asking riders to pick their favorite poison.

It wants to see which of the four fare plans it offered is the most popular. Each plan would raise prices, but in different combinations. The monthly MetroCard, for example, would go from its current $104 to anywhere from $109 to $125, depending on how other rides are priced.

No fare hike at all? That’s not one of the choices.

Dems DA breaks

New York state voters proved again they are slow learners. Four Democratic state senators, including the infamous Pedro Espada Jr., were indicted or convicted in recent years, but New Yorkers responded by rewarding the party with four more seats. Dems will likely have 33 of the 63 seats, although some may caucus with the GOP to allow it to keep control.

Whether the results show New Yorkers to be softhearted or softheaded, the bottom line is the same. All the bellyaching about Albany has come to nothing. Soon enough, voters will be complaining again, but they’re getting the government they deserve.

O: Keep your lips SEALed

So some SEALs got punished for leaking details of the Osama bin Laden raid to video-game makers. They should know better. Only President Obama’s inner circle is allowed to leak classified information, and only for his benefit.