Splitting Hairs

In an article posted yesterday evening, Richard Serrano of the L.A. Times writes that the ATF is denying that William McMahon, William Newell, and David Voth were given promotions.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Wednesday that three supervisors in its controversial Fast and Furious gun-trafficking investigation were transferred to lateral jobs, not promoted.

“They did not receive salary or grade increases, nor did they assume positions with greater responsibility,” the agency said in a short statement.

The Times reported Tuesday that William G. McMahon, William D. Newell and David Voth, three key supervisors in the Phoenix-run investigation that went awry, were promoted to management positions at the ATF’s Washington headquarters.

This is splitting hairs. Both McMahon and Newell have Senior Executive Service status and I’m guessing that Voth is a GS-14 at the minimum. The base pay for SES positions is $119,554 and the bottom rate for a GS-14 is $84,697. This does not take into account the extra amount GS-14s get paid for being located in Washington, D.C. as opposed to the boondocks.

If you or I had so royally screwed up in our jobs that people got killed, we would have been fired if we were lucky. If we weren’t lucky, we’d be looking at either a lawsuit or jail time.