Grassley, Issa criticize ATF message; editorial nails Issa critic

Senator Charles Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa are strongly criticizing a video message from B. Todd Jones, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to agency employees that might discourage them from stepping forward as whistleblowers.

They sent a letter to Jones on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning, a San Diego newspaper came to Issa’s defense when it labeled a “watchdog” group now demanding that Issa be held in contempt of Congress as being, in reality, a “front group” set up by Democrats “to pursue and defend their interests.”

It is the latest chapter in the Fast and Furious saga that has captivated Northwest gun rights activists for months at such forums as Northwest Firearms, Seattle Guns, WaGuns, Shooters Northwest and the larger national Gun Rights Media website. It’s particularly an issue among Washington State gun owners because they have watched while their own highly-partisan anti-gun Democrat Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have done nothing and not even said anything about the scandal that has plagued the ATF and the Obama administration. It is as if the scandal did not even exist. Worrisome message Video: Worrisome message

Cantwell is running for re-election this year virtually unopposed, but voters may still want to quiz her about Fast and Furious. Many people mistakenly believe that the investigation is finished because of the House vote to hold Eric Holder in contempt.

But now Grassley and Issa have turned over yet another stone – the Jones video that warns ATF staff, “…if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences.”

Once again I invite you to use your imagaination to picture what kind of things would be being said by Democrat senators (Leahy and Schumer come to mind, along with Feinstein and Durbin, not to mention Reid) if a Republican ATF Director had issued this sort of a threat.

There would have been immediate and emphatic demands for him to resign. There would be the announcement of investigations by three or four different Senate committees and subcommittees into the matter. The chairman would be announcing at solomn press conferences how they would be looking very closely at the legal protection of whistle-blowers within the ATF. We would be given endless stories about the wonderful work of courageous whistleblowers of the past.

If an ATF agent could be found that was of Hispanic heritage, and if that agent could be convinced that it would be a Good Career Move to become a whistle-blower in a Republican-run ATF, that agent would become an instant celebrity. On the cover of every news mag, a full work up on the evening news and current affairs programs. A 60 Minutes episode would be under production as we speak.

But because it's a Democrat administration, it's the whistle-blowers that have to think long and hard about coming forward.

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