The ritual executions have begun inside the hallowed halls of the ATF, where the echos of jack-booted thuggery reigns supreme. FoxNews reports that ATF whistleblower Agent Vince Cefalu was served with his notice he’d been nominated to the history team last week, a move which Cefalu says is “politically motivated.”
Really? Who woulda thunk it? Let’s see…with an out-of-control agency, a department head on the sacrificial altar, an administration in deep denial, an a Congressional investigation out for more than just a pound of flesh. What’s the next (il)logical step in the 12-step program for making things worse and maximizing the damage? Um…that would be to round up the Jiminy Crickets of the class and shooting them (metaphorically) at sunrise.
Cefalu told Fox News, “Aside from Jay Dobyns, I don’t know of anyone that’s been more vocal about ATF mismanagement than me.” Um. Yeah. That’ll get you noticed by upper management, Vince. And not in a good way. “That’s why this is happening.” Well lemme add a great big DUH to that sentiment. In other news, water is still wet.
Cefalu’s been speaking out on the Agency That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (irony intended) since December. I’m frankly surprised that it’s taken this long for the ATF to ice the guy. Speaking as someone who once took the opportunity to tell my company that my department head was a clueless, empty suit and his lack of management skills were torpedoing the company – and got “laid-off” for my trouble, sticking your head up out of your cubicle to sound off (no matter how right you may be) is the moral equivalent of a prairie dog, popping up out of his burrow to see what all that noise from a 30.06 is about.
Great move for Truth, Justice, and the American Way, Agent Cefalu. Not so much for your job security. Cefalu can protest his dismissal (I know I would, if I were in his shoes), but he’ll be automatically put on paid administrative leave durring the process.
I’m sure the ATF will try and justify Cefalu’s sacking with claims that he’s some malcontent, trying to cover up his own work-related deficiencies by pointing the finger at others. Oops. Too late. Cefalu’s story has been backed-up by a host of agents who’ve testified to Congress that every whistle he blew was on the money.
But you don’t get in the kind of deep kimchee that Melson and the ATF is in by pardoning your accusers, fessing-ing up, and taking your medicine. You line up the honest ones and shoot them first.
What I find fascinating is not the 24-year agency vet’s firing. (That’s a tragedy for him, his family, and for the rest of the country as far as I’m concerned.) Nope. It’s the colossal stupidity that bureaucracies exhibit when under fire for mismanagement. It’s like there’s some “stupid gene” that mutates in bureaucratic DNA, compelling the higher-ups to make the most damaging moves possible, when they get caught doing something wrong.
Or in the words of Hank Hill (King of the Hill) Just when I think you’ve said the stupidest thing ever, ya keep talkin’.
Cefalu is likely to retain his status as sacrificial lamb (or Judas goat, if you will) for this sordid tale of the ATF Gone Wild. If Congress moves quickly enough (what are the odds) he might get his job back. Hell, I’d likely give him a promotion, and let him assist in the sorting process, to get rid of the bad apples and retain only employees who have some backbone and ethics in their blood.
As far as the ATF, you have only to look back at any one of a couple of dozen political or corporate scandals to see what is going to happen next. And if I were Obama & Co., I wouldn’t be whistling past any graveyards any time soon.
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus (2) and Luther,(3) and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
Henry David Thoreau (1848)
Henry always shot high. He might have been more fulfilled had he kicked someone in the balls rather than speak over their head. I say kick the balls (in the legal sense) of everyone who participates in the turn against the whistle blower.
ps: Robert, you might need more bandwidth. The comment box is getting mighty slow.
Just thought I would point out that this made the drudge report, along with another article about gunrunner. Drudge does have a way of making things get noticed by the public, so is good news.
Do you mean this article got picked up by Drudge?
I think what he did is patriotic.
He did not have to speak up. He could have just played go-along-to-get-along. But he was not working for a corporation. He was/is working for us. And to just sit back and watch things happen without stepping out of line and being heard is cowardly.
The more obvious answer is that he had an issue that was bad, then decided to go public to deflect that issue. That happens quite a bit with alleged whistleblowers. In any event you don’t have whistleblower protections if you talk to the press, only to the Congress.
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