NOT AT ALL FUNNY – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  The FBI is our first line of defense in many areas, including terrorism and espionage.  But the FBI is in trouble.  Something is wrong.  It has missed a number of cues involving people who later are involved in mass killings.  Emails show some senior officials of the Bureau casually involved in partisan politics.

I have no doubt whatever that the overwhelming majority of FBI personnel do their jobs superbly, and often heroically.  But there are problems that may involve training, political correctness, and improper political influence.

It's not the first time,  When I was at The New York Times, some decades ago, knowledgeable journalists told me that the New York Police Department considered the FBI behind the times.  The Bureau, while brilliant in fighting Nazi espionage and sabotage, faltered when it came to attacking organized crime.  J. Edgar Hoover, the patriot who founded the modern FBI and led it to prestige and success, stayed too long and let the Bureau lose ground.

Okay, those things happen at even the best organizations.  It seems it's now time for a thorough Congressional revue of the FBI, with attendant recommendations for improvement.  From Fox: 

From the storied hallways of the J. Edgar Hoover building to field offices around the country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation faces a crisis of confidence as rank-and-file agents are blamed for not preventing recent attacks and top brass finds itself in the middle of an unfolding political fight.

The blitz of bad news is taking a toll on the intensely proud bureau's members, both past and present.
“In my experience, I can’t say I know of any parallel to what is going on now,” former FBI Assistant Director Ron Hosko told Fox News.

The two-pronged attack on the bureau's credibility reached a crescendo last week, when the bureau admitted it had not acted on a tip that might have stopped Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.

President Trump, in turn, seized on the grave error to effectively accuse the bureau of making mistakes because agents have been consumed with the Russia probe.

While the DOJ triumphantly announced Friday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation had indicted 13 Russian nationals, Trump stressed that the case did not show collusion with his campaign.

The ignored warning about Cruz was especially painful, because it was the second such admission in the case. Cruz gunned down 17 students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. It quickly emerged that a YouTuber had warned the FBI someone sharing the same name had said he wanted to be a "professional school shooter" back in September.

Then came word on Friday that another tipster had given the bureau an even more specific warning Jan. 5, and that had also been ignored.

“This kid was flashing red and the system failed,” Hosko said. “The FBI has had its piece in that and it’s a significant piece.”

Trump was quick to tie the two issues together, tweeting that the bureau missed signals because it was "spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign," then urging it to "Get back to the basics and make us all proud!'

COMMENT:  Let the probes begin, but let some elements of the American press cover them in a fair and mature way.  Some elements of the media were overjoyed when the Obama administration went after cops, almost to the point of fanaticism.  Witness the smearing of the Baltimore Police Department, which now has difficulty finding enough qualified candidates for police work.

Now that the FBI is under scrutiny, those same media elements are shocked, just shocked.  They see the FBI, rightly or wrongly, as being a check on Donald Trump.  Oh, ain't law enforcement grand?

February 19,  2018