deja vu all over again

“Déjà vu All Over Again
Wednesday, June 05, 2002

By Mike Causey

FOUR YEARS AGO IT WAS THE IRS.

FOUR WEEKS AGO IT WAS THE INS.

THIS WEEK IT IS THE FBI.

After citizen complaints that it was being too tough, Congress told the IRS to cool it. Tax revenues were rolling in at a record level. Now audits are down. Experts say a few IRS agents got out of hand because an earlier Congress told them to make like junkyard dogs. Now, that revenues and audits are down, some politicians want the IRS to show a little more spunk. Get a little tougher.

After citizen complaints that it was being too tough Congress told the INS to be nicer. It said the agency shouldn't make such a big deal of rounding up illegal aliens (what harm were they doing?) and should spend more time guarding
the borders to prevent more people from entering. The INS was told it couldn't make raids--looking for illegals--at certain parks and soccer fields in the Washington area because it looked bad. And was bad politics. Now the INS is on
the hot seat for not spotting illegal aliens who turned out to be terrorists.

After citizen complaints that it was breaking the law to enforce the law, and getting too much power, the FBI was told to back off. It was told not to associate with known criminals (just as the CIA was told not to associate with
or make deals with bad guys) when trying to get a handle on terrorists or organized crime gangs. It was told not to
profile people and not to snoop on innocent people even if they were somehow connected with criminals and/or terrorists.

If you're an old timer none of this will surprise you. Although it probably makes you sad. Or mad. It's happened before and will happen again.

If you are younger, get used to it. Your board of directors is made up of 535 men and women
(Congress). Some are brilliant. Some are patriots. Some are both. A lot are neither one. They are opportunists or buck-passers. Bullies (when they have congressional immunity) who make rules, then punish people who must carry them out, if the project goes bad.

The government needs the best people around. And that often means they must take it, or burrow into the bureaucracy, when politicians get a wild idea, then backtrack, then pass the buck. It would be hard to blame anybody--when their agency is attacked for mistakes forced on them by politicians---from quitting.

But a lot of Americans, some who know it and some who should know it, can see through the witch hunts and hope you will stick it out. Have confidence in the future.”

“Good piece Gordon. That's always the way. Good ol Congress! It was like that in the days of Mark Twain and the days of Will Rogers and the days of Bob Hope and it's still like that.”

“Some people may miss the point of Mike Causey's piece. He is illustrating how Congress and the media castigate and criticize the Federal agencies for following the rules that the media editorializes for and Congress mandates.

Congress will never admit they made a mistake with past legislation.”

“Well that point was so well made I don't see how anyone could miss it. Congress has always done it; the media is a johnnie come lately.
This whole issue was pointed out during both the IRS and INS flaps, and it's obvious once again.
Where I come from it's called meddling. Malicious meddling.”

“LOL Gordon! I'm glad you are defending the IRS against those scurillous attacks launced by Republican members of congress!

(SeriouslY: I dunno who Causey is trying to bail out. Its not merely a question of being too tough or being too lax. With the FBI, its a ben a question of incredible abuses of power. The FBI ran amock with COINTLEPRO and with the Whitey Bulger affair.

I'm not saying congress got it right, and I'm certainly not suggesting the media set policy. The fact still remains that there were major screw ups and abuses with the FBI.

I knew a lazy ass rip off carpenter who'd tell customers: "make up your mind, do ya want it done cheaper, or better." I think his customers had every right to expect that he do the job efficiently (they deserved cheaper and better quality).)”