None Dare Call It Idiocy: Duhbya Flounders as a Stunned Press Watches

Coincidence? GOP and Media Suddenly Get
Waco Fatigue!
Scandal exhaustion sets in just as new evidence that Koresh set the Branch Davidian fires emerges!

by Tamara Baker

Monday, October 18, 1999 --Saint Paul, Minn. (APJ)--One of the few hopeful signs out of recent coverage of "CelebCorps" (thanks to the Daily Howler for this word!) reportage is that Waco Fatigue is hitting even the Beltway press--and really hard.

Why the sudden exhaustion, you ask? Consider the following facts:

The news that one of Dan Burton's expert witnesses detected what he thought was FBI gunfire on the tapes of the last day of the Waco siege was countered by the fact that this same expert also found what he considered evidence of "repeated" gunfire on the part of the Davidians.

The media also took pains to point out something they had consistently failed to do in the past: that the FBI's orders did indeed allow them to fire on the Branch Davidians!

In addition, CBS News has reported that among the materials the FBI asked for from the Pentagon was a "tank retriever".

Think about that for a moment: if the FBI thought that they'd need a tank retriever--which is a tank-like machine used to haul incapacitated tanks out of harm's way--that should give you some clue as to the kind of firepower they expected to face from David Koresh. And the huge illegal arsenal they found in the ruins of Koresh's self-lit funeral pyre bore out their worst fears.

Meanwhile, as we digested that bit of news, retired Army Colonel Rodney L. Rawlings told the Dallas Morning News that he heard, through bug transmissions on speakers in the FBI's Waco command center's monitoring room, Branch Davidian leader David Koresh give the order to set the fires within five minutes of the commencement of the FBI's assault on the Davidian compound. He then heard the sound of gunshots immediately afterwards.

"I heard it. Anyone who says you couldn't at the time is being less than truthful," said Rawlings, who said that he was in an adjacent room in the FBI command center at the time.

And if that weren't enough, Janet Reno--whom the GOP wanted to blame for Koresh's fiery murder-suicide, and the alleged cover-up immediately following--is turning out to be the person most responsible for exposing the actions of then-FBI Director William Sessions and his Waco go-to guy Larry Potts.

Reno's recent decision to raid FBI headquarters--instead of waiting politely for Louis Freeh, the GOP's favorite Federal employee, to give her and former Senator Danforth the documents they want--has already started to bear fruit, as noted by David A. Vise and Lorraine Adams on Page A16 of the October 8, 1999 Washington Post:

"The new documents were discovered in boxes at the FBI's complex in Quantico after fresh subpoenas and other requests from the Justice Department, various congressional committees and former senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), who is spearheading a new federal probe.

"Federal officials, who asked not to be identified, said the FBI had not previously provided the records, some of which are stamped 'Secret' or 'Confidential,' because earlier congressional requests were drafted too narrowly or the bureau overlooked the records. "

The upshot of all this is a report that the GOP Congress, afraid that if they continue living up to their nickname of "The Party of Investigation" that they'll lose the House next year, is suddenly a lot less enthusiastic about continuing their high-tech lynching of Janet Reno--at least not now, not over Waco.

As quoted by AP, Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN) even went so far as to use the term "Waco fatigue" to describe this sudden disinterest in continuing the Waco probes.

Gee, I wonder why.