From the evidence one would think Potts is from the President's or Vice President's home state and black. A national laughingstock like Joycelyn Elders from Arkansas can perhaps be considered a bit of comic relief in an otherwise boring administration. Henry Foster of Tennessee, sterilizer of the feeble minded women, is perhaps a bit of gallows humor regarding Elders.
That the man in charge of Ruby Ridge when Weaver's wife was murdered and in charge of Waco when 86 people died has been promoted to the number two position in the FBI is a direct insult. Yes, this man inspired great public confidence in his abilities. Unfortunately that man's abilities are not in the area of law enforcement.
This man's abilities, soon to work their way into FBI policy are at getting hostages killed. Unfortunately those are also the hostages he job was to keep alive. To make matters worse all the deaths are directly attributable to his actions.
There is a very old bit of wisdom. Do not look at what a person says, look at what a person does. That applies to political administrations also.
At his best, which lasted four days, he was trying to bring the country together. At his worst, day five and counting, we have a President taking every opportunity to stifle free speech by accusing all opposition to the way the government is using bad language. In the most charitable sense he appears to be saying at least that he wants to put the discontent in this country in the past.
But what he does is add direct insult to every real and imagined injury over Ruby Ridge and Waco by putting promoting the man in charge to the highest office in the FBI that does not have to be confirmed by the Senate. As his promotion is not political but in theory based upon the Civil Service merit promotion system what he has done is what the government considers meritorious.
But at the level of Deputy Director of the FBI the position is certainly political policy level. This is an unkept secret within the Civil Service.
And now that President Clinton has identified citizen militias as bomb throwing baby killers in his rhetoric he has sent a clear message by permitting Potts to be promoted. The message to the people he is calling unamerican can be expressed in many ways. The clearest is "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."
It is a fine message. "We must all come together. We must all cease the hate speech. Oh. By the way. I almost forgot. The man that caused all the interest in joining militias and believing the outrageous stories about the government is being rewarded for his work."
Why would anyone worry about speech when there are actions like this? Here we have clear government approval of the deaths at Ruby Ridge and Waco and a clear indication that such methods will not only continue but will become more pervasive if for no other reason than subordinates emulating their boss.
What possessed this administration to do this? At best we can say the bureaucracy must act professionally towards its own people. But that flies in the face of the reprimands this man has received for his handling of Ruby Ridge and Waco.
I was once a civil servant. I can not imagine getting a promotion after formal reprimands in highly public cases.
On the political aspect of this. At the time when the media and Congress have finally recognized Ruby Ridge and Waco have occurred and in fact are greatly divisive to this country, the man is promoted. Upon what grounds? He great handling of the Oklahoma City bombing.
I have heard of flimsy pretexts. I have heard of dumb pretexts. I have even heard of contrary pretexts. This is the first I have heard that has all three aspects at once.
This is not a titular job where the man is promoted to get him out of the way. This man violated official FBI policy and that was the basis for his reprimands. In this job the least we can expect is that policy will be changed so that what he did becomes policy.
And those policy changes will result in the loss of more lives in the future. Why? Because they did in the past.
It was not just chance. The policies he violated were ones known to save lives. At Ruby Ridge his rules of engagement made everyone a target including a woman with an infant in her arms. At Waco the policy of waiting until hell freezes over to save lives was violated and 86 people died as a result.
We can expect the new policy regarding hostages to be exactly what he did, everyone is a target and to take action regardless of lives lost.
And in the process the FBI will be creating incidents faster than the BATF that will cause more people to join militias and provide more fodder for the evil intentions of government. The wiser heads in Congress have suggested at less the removal of the enforcement powers from the BATF and transferring them to the FBI. With the promotion, the FBI is being changed into the mold of the BATF.
We have just lost ground in avoiding a revolution. With the promotion the government will be creating more pretexts for talk of a revolution. When it takes such actions it increases the chances of being confronted with a militia coming to the rescue of people besieged by the government as the Texas militia has already promised the government.
In such a confrontation the militia will not win but the downward spiral of increasing violence will have begun.
How could the government be so stupid in promoting Potts if that were not its intention?
I don't know. You tell me.