I spoke to Gov Frank Keating's office today....

Jeff OTMG

New member
As I am sure we have all heard, or will soon hear, the Governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, is being considered for a position in the U.S. Treasury Dept that would place him in a position to oversee certain LE agencies. These agencies includes U.S. Customs, the U.S. Secret Service, but also includes our favorite agency, the BATF. Another person being considered for this is the Governor of Montana, though his credentials are not as good for the position as Gov. Keating's. I worked for many years back in the 1980's to get CC legislation passed in Oklahoma going so far as to write an original version in 1985. I left the state, but Senator Frank Sherdan continued the fight and got it passed. Gov. Keating signed the legislation and is considered pro-gun. Gov. Keating was very disturbed after the bombing of the federal building in OKC. When it was suggested that it was related to the incident at Waco and AG Janet Reno said, 'Nobody cares about Waco anymore.' He was furious. He is from the old FBI and many of those retired agents, my father included, are not happy with the way the agencies have become political pawns of politicians. I intend to discuss his feelings on the 2nd Amendment and a reversal of some of the BATF's new 'interpretations' of the law that has seen the reclassification of some 12ga shotguns as destructive devices, the end of importation of Chinese made arms, the end of the reimportation of U.S. made firearms and parts, and the end of the importation of replacement parts of foreign manufacture. There is another VERY important issue, the crime report analysis that is due to be submitted regarding the effectiveness of the Brady Anti-Crime Act of 1994. That report is due prior to Congress voting on a continuence of the Act in 2004 and will be conducted by the AG with input from the BATF. Also at stake is the current trend of harrassment of FFL holders as well as a policy putting some non-FFL holders who sell at gun shows in a catch-22 position and potentially in violation of the law. I also hope to obtain some documentation to show that some current high level people within BATF fought for Gore to win the presidential election using company equipment and labor paid for by taxpayers. The FBI never held BATF in high regard anyway, unlike the Secret Service and U.S. Marshalls Service, and this could go a long way toward cleaning house if not the abolishment of the agency as we know it as Regan had suggested. I will find out if Gov. Keating is worthy of our support and report it here. He may need our help, if not he and President Elect Bush need our strong input to see that changes to the way the Clinton BATF has been running things for the last eight years comes to an immediate and abrupt stop. Gov. Keating is currently in Bosnia and will return tomorrow, he is suppose to call me next Thursday while I am back in Austin. So what if I told them that I wanted to discuss a possible presidential appointment and I happen to live in Austin, it's the truth. The fact that he knows my father can't hurt either. If Gov. Keating is as strong a supporter of the 2nd Amendment as he has been in the past we need to do something about it. If it turns out that he isn't then we need to do something about that as well.

If any of you have any other specific issues, short of calling for criminal investigation of agency personel, please post here so that I will be able to bring it up in our conversation. Thanks guys, we might really be able to pull off a major coup with this, especially since Clinton is giving the NRA credit for the Bush win and Democrats are complaining to their leadership to drop the gun issue. I think that if agency 'interpretation' can be changed as a first step without creating to much of a stink, that a reversal of some of Slick's executive orders may fly as well. If that happens, and the general public remains apethetic, we could actually see Brady die in 2004. Baby steps. Help me out, these appointments are CRITICAL.
 
Great post Jeff.

My big concern is the attitude by groups such as the BATF that they are above the law. The are several examples, of which I'm sure you are aware of, of the rights of individuals being trampled under foot when they have committed no crime. The are agents of the law, they are not above it.

EMN
 
Keating

Ol' Frank is playing it cool. Talks like no one has spoken with him, about anything.

I think he would be a good'en.
 
over in legal & political there was a post back in october about a guy confronting someone removing Bush for President signs...

the culpret was a BATF person
 
You need to encourage Frank to accept this position if it is indeed offered to him.

If he doesn't accept, Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft will.
Ashcroft isn't appropriate for this position.
 
From the Neal Knox newsletter:

"Last night, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot confirmed he had turned down George W. Bush's offer to become Attorney General. That's a big disappointment.

It also extends the A.G. short list to again include John "Waco Coverup" Danforth. Oklahoma Gov. Keating is reportedly still on the list, and so is former Sen. John Ashcroft -- who endorsed last spring's Missouri concealed carry referendum."

Anybody got an address for Bush so we can remind him -- or who do we write to put some heat on?
 
Jeff, A very good post!
I don't know much about Mr. Keating. My boss has had dinner with him while at a conference and he (my boss) says that Mr. Keating is pro-gun and even showed my boss his gun collection.
My concerns are as many gun owners: repeal the executive orders, no new anti-gun laws,etc.
I agree that these appointments are important and need our support or direction as required. Thanks for the info and keep us informed.
 
Thanks for the excellent post. Maybe I am thinking small, but I definitely would like to see the reimportation of the M1, the parts and guns just banned a few months ago, and survelleince of non-citizen purchases of firearms, and purchases by those who have ties to foriegn extremist groups. One of the dirty secrets of the relatively liberal US gun laws is that foreigners come here for elementary training.
 
Houndawg has it right. Must say that Attorney General is a very good place to have a friend. They could discourage these crazy suits against the industry. They could promote, as friends of the court, Emerson like cases. They should let Bill Gates alone and investigate the many coverups on the part of Reno.
 
Ashcroft was just nominated for Attorney General

Fox News just reported that former Missouri Senator John Ashcroft was nominated to be Attorny General. My impression (from living across the river in Illinois) is that Ashcroft was always pro RKBA as governor and as US Senator.

Not as good a choice as Keating, but much better then Danforth IMHO.

Personally, I'd like to see him bring integrity back to Federal LE. Right now in the West the Clinton Justice Department is arguing that federal agents are allowed to break the law by virtue of their positions. This is in the appeals court on if Lon Horiouchi (sp?) can be tried in State Court for his crimes. This kind of attitude has to stop before it spreads further. If it's not politically viable to have criminal prosecutions of these people, the public at least needs a full accounting and their dismissal in disgrace.

Jeff
 
I had thought that Danforth or Ashcroft would get the AG spot. For it to have been offered to the Governor of Mt (can't spell his name) came as a surprise. My impression was that the Mt and Ok governors were both up for an 'Undersecretary' of the Treasury of the law enforcement operations. It would be a position that the Director of BATF would report to. It would not be a bad thing to have Keating as Director of BATF though I think that post would be beneath him.
 
Jeff,

Great post. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute.

Here's a question:

If I remember correctly, when Reno became AG, she fired all federal prosecutors, nationwide, and rehired those positions with people who were sympathetic to her views.

What can be done to counter all of the liberal federal appointees that have been placed over the last eight years?

Ken
 
We will soon know if Mr. Ashcroft has what it takes to be an affective AG. For the first two years he shouldn't have to get outside of washington filing inditments.
 
Jeff is just a show-off

Jeff,

Please refrain from contributing informative and well-reasoned posts here at TFL. I come the thefiringline for rumor and inuendo and, dammit, I better get it, next time!!

Let's tone it down some, Jeff. Quit posturing and dropping names. ;)

Rick
Nobody ever takes *my* calls.

PS, anybuddy gettin' the suspicion that the Bush Cabinet is falling together rather nicely, all and all?
 
KenPaul, I don't know about the Reno statement. There are over 3,000 Presidentially appointed positions, not that every President appoints someone to every post, but they could if they wanted to. Hopefully Bush will take the opportunity to clean house over the next four years. It would seem that there would be far to many federal prosecutors to replace all of them, though you can bet that the ones who retired or were moved into federal judge positions would have been replaced with 'like minded' individuals. We will know if the same guy (Martinez?) argued the govt position agianst Emerson in the 5th Circuit Court again argues it in the Supreme Court. I would love the govt attorney to walk into the Supreme Court and roll over stating the 'new' govt position on the 2nd Amendment, but asking for the Court to issue a rulings agreeing with that position.
 
Thursday came and went with no call. I will try his office in the morning, but with New Years I don't expect anyone to be there after noon so will try again Tuesday. Just keeping everyone posted.
 
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