Although the impact of his departure from the CIA will have a significance that goes well beyond the sphere of that seat, it looks like he had simply behaved as he shouldn't have.

The 'net is raging with speculation on why this wasn't picked up on a polygraph, how many knew about it but didn't let it out or confront him with it until he refused to go along with a narrative for "Benghazigate", Broadwell was a plant by the Democratic Party, and on to this being the first of many purges in a second-term administration. I even saw someone post elsewhere, with a degree of self-assurance, that he was resigning over a flap about the White House not embracing the CIA timeline for Benghazi.

Despite the striking coincidences and my disappointment that this happened to a man I considered a solid leader, it seems all so simple as well. The fact that he'd stuck his wick where it didn't belong was about to get out, and he wasn't going to lie about it.

Sometimes, things just need to be taken for what they are, and not what we want them to be.

It will be interesting to see what Ralph Peters, Tom Ricks and Bing West have to say when the stunned mullet sensation wears off.