When all else fails, keep attacking the messenger

Media Matters for America is taking another swat at trying to discredit the congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious by taking more swats at Mike Vanderboegh, one of the two bloggers who broke the story over a year and a half ago.

I followed the scandal as reported by Vanderboegh and David Codrea early on. There was an unspoken element in their reporting that intrigued me from the start, and I noted it in a blog post back on February 3, 2011:

Say what you want about Vanderboegh's politics. He's a long time and consistent critic of ATF upper management. But despite his criticism, or perhaps because of it, he appears to have attracted and courted capable inside sources. And his sources have proven accurate on stories beyond what's currently playing out. 

If Codrea and Vanderboegh are where ATF insiders go to leak a story, it suggests some ATF insiders have extreme distrust of their own agency and the bureaucracy surrounding it. It strikes me they wanted to get as far from "the system" as they could while still disclosing alleged improprieties. 

This does not speak well of the government, or its chief agency charged with firearms regulation.

Today, in responding to one of his Media Matters critics, Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog clearly stated what seemed so obvious to me from the start:

And let's get one thing straight, at least, since everyone here seems to think within the straight-jacket of party politics, this has nothing to do with that false dichotomy. I am not a member of the GOP, nor are most of my friends. I'm proud to say I've been on the enemies lists of the past three White Houses. Mostly that is because I'm a big believer in the antiseptic qualities of sunlight on government conduct. The ATF whistleblowers came to us in spite of our philosophical differences because they knew we shared that principle and that our past track record proved we couldn't be bullied off of it.

It's really a shame those on the left either aren't smart enough or pretend to be be dumb enough not to see this point for themselves. Rather than analyze how the story broke and the ever mounting evidence, the left's apologists focus on protecting their ideological allies in the Obama administration by attacking the messengers who dared to stick their necks out to begin getting at the truth.

The left's distraction hasn't worked so far, and will likely continue to fail going forward. Too many witnesses have come forward, too many documents disclosed. It's way too late to lend any credence to the Alinsky-like tactic of attacking the messengers.