Fast and Furious Tapes: Sit Your Ass Down, Charles Grassley

Human Events ^ | 09/21/2011 | John Hayward

[neverdem]

CBS News has been among the few mainstream media outlets to treat the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal as a big story all along. They just published some tapes of an amazing conversation between Arizona gun dealer Andrew Howard, who was one of the dealers used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to deliberately sell American guns to Mexican drug cartels, and ATF agent Hope MacAllister.

Howard’s Lone Wolf Trading Company sold the guns that later turned up at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder. The tapes were made in February, just as the scandal was appearing on the radar screen of those who did not choose to studiously ignore it, like most of the supposedly scandal-hungry mainstream media.

A.W.R. Hawkins has a great write-up this morning of the “Watergate-sized leak” these tapes blow in the Obama Administration’s stone wall. I wanted to add a few other points from the CBS News transcript that jumped out at me:

First and foremost, after talking some smack about Senator Charles Grassley of the Judiciary Committee – who, according to the tapes, is an “arrogant bastard” – Agent MacAllister claims she actually suggested hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Grassley to shut him up. She makes it sound like a joke she told to break the tense mood in a meeting with her superiors. It sounds like MacAllister is a real live wire during ATF conference calls.

Agent: That's kind of what my suggestion but nobody thought that was funny like if I were a P.I. I'd put him on Grassley, I'm sure there's a lot would go away. Actually my one suggestion was just tell him in a registered Republican. I'm sure if he knew that everything would be fine, they...

[Ken H]

Makes sense.

Any Hawkeyes out there want to call Sen. Grassley's office for a comment?

[cornfedcowboy]

The agent could have been playing along. Nothing monumental came from these tapes. Also, I have heard that the agent in the recordings is top notch. The gun dealer got a raw deal as well.

[cornfedcowboy]

Any Hawkeyes out there want to call Sen. Grassley’s office for a comment?

---

I talked to him personally about 4 weeks ago. He didn’t make many comments, just listened.

[Enterprise]

I hope there's a whole STATE full of people calling him tomorrow.

Senator Grassley, is it common for low level Federal employees to have Private Investigators hired to dig up dirt on Senators?

Senator Grassley, it has been said that the Senate is basically 100 of the most power people in the world. Is this no longer true, and has the Senate delegated its power and prestige to low level Federal employees?

Senator Grassley, why do Senators work so hard to get re-elected to office when the true power belongs to low level Federal employees?

[basil]

ping!

[ozzymandus]

My experience with the BATF has shown the female agents to be the worst. They always have a chip on their shoulder.

[cornfedcowboy]

Lighten up on the agents. They are not the problem. The bureaucracy?.... now there is your problem.

[ozzymandus]

Maybe you’ve met different agents than I have. I stand by my comment.

[Ken H]

Lighten up on the agents. They are not the problem. The bureaucracy?.... now there is your problem.

Isn't that like saying UAW workers are not the problem, GM management is.

[Baynative]

Are we talking about the same Charles Grassley who swore he would not let the Able Danger Team down ... THAT C. Grassley?

Oh me of little faith.

[cornfedcowboy]

Isn’t that like saying UAW workers are not the problem, GM management is.

---

No, in that analogy it would be more like GM management directed the UAW workers to put together craps cars. Don’t blame the workers, blame the management.
This is exactly the problem. The Justice Dept. designed a scheme to further a failed and deadly political agenda. The agents weren’t trying to have the guns walked, their supervisors did. Heck, the FBI was actually giving $$$ to informants to buy guns and run them across the border without the ATF’s knowledge. This was directed from levels higher than field agents.

[Smokin' Joe]

Get the loser out, and usher in Hillary

That might not work if 'Operation Castaway' gets out (run out of Miami, running guns to Honduras). There was a little on it as this story started coming out, but danged little since. The State Dept. had to be in on that one, and possibly the shuffling of military grade (not gun show stuff) weapons to the Cartels through a warehouse in New Mexico. Both operations were mentioned early on, but this has pushed them aside.

[Joe Brower]

[Lurker]

Lighten up on the agents. They are not the problem.

Bullcrap. They're no better than the guards at Auschwitz were.

[KansasGirl]

[It’s unclear why the Inspector General, who is supposed to investigate independently, would turn over evidence to an entity that is itself under investigation.]

I heard Issa talk about this last night on Greta. This prevented them from getting to interview agent McCallister without her knowing what they already knew.

[pabianice]

Look forward to Obama pardoning scores or hundreds of people before his last day in office, 20 Jan 2013.

[pabianice]

Please don’t cheapen the Holocaust with comments like this. Until federal agents secretly arrest and murder people, there is no comparison.