The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com

Compiled by ABC News' Carrie Halperin and Jayce Henderson

GENERAL PETRAEUS

The New York Daily News' Joseph Straw: " CIA sex scandal coming to Capitol Hill" The CIA sex scandal is coming to Capitol Hill, with four-star philanderer David Petraeus due Friday for a grilling on affairs - his own and those of national security.

The disgraced retired general, who resigned as CIA director last Friday over his romance with his married biographer, will address the fatal 9/11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. LINK

The Washington Times' Shaun Waterman and Sean Lengell: " Investigator criticizes State spending on security" The State Department has seen dramatic boosts in diplomatic security funding and staffing but failed to spend the money strategically and didn't fill key posts, a congressional investigator said Thursday as Congress took a closer look at how four Americans died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. LINK

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

The New York Times' James Barron: " Obama, Visiting New York, Pledges Help in Recovery From Storm" President Obama got a look on Thursday at the muddy wreckage that Hurricane Sandy left in its wake, flying over ravaged neighborhoods in Queens, consoling devastated homeowners under tents and in the streets on Staten Island, and promising a strong and continuing federal role in the recovery. LINK

Bloomberg's Daniel Ten Kate and Margaret: " Obama Courts Asean as China-Japan Tensions Rise: Southeast Asia" President Barack Obama aims to build trade ties with Asia on his first foreign trip since re- election, challenging China as island disputes leave the region more open to closer economic and military ties with the U.S. Obama's three-day trip includes visits to Thailand, which said this week it would join the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, and Myanmar, a former military regime bordering China that is hosting an American president for the first time. LINK

GOP

ABC News' John Santucci, Chris Good, and Shushannah Walshe: " Everything Romney Said to Explain Away Loss" Why did Mitt Romney lose the election? If you ask him-as some donors did-it's because President Obama gave "extraordinary financial gifts" to Hispanic voters and other demographic blocs in his voting coalition. This week Romney explained his election loss to high-level donors on at least two private conference calls, and ABC News obtained a recording of one of them Wednesday. LINK

The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty and Dan Eggen: " GOP governors back away from Romney remarks" Republican leaders have begun reckoning with the fact that their party has grown increasingly out of step with a broad majority of American voters. While party leaders remain confident in their beliefs, they have identified a litany of problems and a steep set of challenges: flawed candidates, a problematic message, the alienation of nonwhite Americans who account for a growing share of the population, outdated technology and a political operation that is not up to that of the Democrats. LINK

Politico's Jonathan Martin and James Hohmann: " Republican governors go soft on taxes" Some Republican governors are softening on the party's hard-line toward tax increases for the wealthy, suggesting that GOP congressmen at least be open to rate hikes in exchange for a comprehensive fiscal agreement on taxes and entitlements. "The people have spoken, I think we're going to have to be [flexible] now," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, when asked if his party would now have to be open to taxes on the highest earners. "Elections do have consequences. The president campaigned on that." LINK

The Boston Globe's Juliette Kayyem: " The GOP's 'Hispanic problem'" On immigration issues, the Republican Party allowed its most extreme elements to turn white anger into a national platform. And many candidates, knowing that some working-class white voters blamed illegal immigration for the high unemployment rate, competed to demonize undocumented workers in ever-more creative ways. But since last week's rude introduction to demographic reality - only 23 percent of Hispanics voted for Mitt Romney, according to a comprehensive poll by the group Latino Decisions - Republicans have been clamoring to create a new narrative. For a little more than a week now, they have been testing out various theories of … LINK

ABC NEWS VIDEO

" Obama Promises to Rebuild on 2 nd Visit to Sandy-Damaged Area" LINK " Mitt Romney: Bill Clinton Thought I was Going to Win" LINK " Mitt Romney: Obama Gave Hispanics Obamacare" LINK

BOOKMARKS

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