When asked by a reporter to comment on angry insults by a competitor, a wise old boss of mine simply said, “When you fire into a bush and you hear a scream you know you’ve hit something.”

Have you heard the screaming of assorted Obama administration figures on the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe? Jeff Sessions fired and he hit something. What exactly? Why the reaction?

The simple answer comes from McCabe himself. Sara Carter reported Friday night that McCabe has said for months and made it clear again Thursday: “If I go down I’m taking everybody with me.” Fox News reporter Adam Housely’s sources told him something similar. Hold that thought as we look at some of the reaction.

From Obnoxious to Unhinged to Vaguely Threatening

On Friday night, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe. He was acting on the recommendation of the DOJ’s notoriously picky and apolitical Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). Usually, the chances of OPR wanting someone fired is about the same as a 16-seed beating a 1-seed during March Madness. Further, the OPR was acting on evidence uncovered by the DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The same guy whose integrity and bona fides the media were praising after Trump tweeted, “Isn’t the IG an Obama guy?”

The reason? Unauthorized leaking and many misleading statements to investigators.

You would think that — given their former positions —people like former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former CIA Director John Brennan would have some respect for the OPR and the IG. The worst you’d expect to see is, “I’m sad for Andrew. I question the motives Sessions has for going after him, but we have to see what the OPR has on him.” But no. The reaction was both hyper and hyper-partisan. (Curious. Acting partisan when you’ve been accused of acting partisan helps prove the case.)

Holder thought the firing was “dangerous.”

Analyze McCabe firing on two levels: the substance and the timing. We don’t know enough about the substance yet. The timing appears cruel and a cave that compromised DOJ independence to please an increasingly erratic President who should’ve played no role here. This is dangerous

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) March 17, 2018

In response to President Trump calling the firing a “great day for democracy” and saying McCabe was a choir boy compared to Comey, the former director tweeted:

Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.

— James Comey (@Comey) March 17, 2018

Former CIA director John Brennan went so far over the top he’d need a parachute to safely return to earth.

When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you. https://t.co/uKppoDbduj

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018

Former UN ambassador and serial unmasker Samantha Power responded to Brennan with a veiled threat against the President.

Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan. https://t.co/VLg94OLL2R

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) March 17, 2018

Remember, both Brennan and Power are up to their eyeballs in the effort to spread the Trump Russia collusion story. Brennan ran the CIA when it was spying on members of the United States Congress. And he lied about it.

The House Intelligence Committee is now looking into the CIA’s role in the dossier/Russia collusion business. (Holder has to try and undermine his old department because Sessions has ordered the release of Fast & Furious documents and DOJ is now investigating the Uranium One deal. Holder’s fingerprints are on both the approval of the deal and the burying of the original investigation into Russia’s criminal efforts to get our uranium.)

Others with a heavy investment in the Trump-Russia narrative raced to attack the McCabe firing.

The Democrats and Media Race to Politicize

Those old enough to remember Watergate remember how Republicans in Congress worked in a bipartisan manner with Democrats to ferret out the corruption and abuses of power. Well, that’s as long gone as 8-track tapes.

California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell snarked:

We have to fight back. This is @realDonaldTrump punishing anyone involved with #TrumpRussiaInvestigation. It’s how guilty people act. And shame on Sessions. In Trump’s presence he cowers like a boy, but to sing for his supper he thinks he’s acting like a man doing this. https://t.co/48Mjwztwl1

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 17, 2018

Swalwell is ignoring the OPR to call the man who stared down the Klan in Alabama a coward.

Adam Schiff conceded Sunday morning that McCabe’s firing “may be justified,” but said the decision was “tainted” because McCabe is a witness in the Mueller investigation. That’s clever. “Sure, he lied to investigators when questioned. How dare that be used against him when questioned by investigators?” (Don’t let this guy near Hillary. He’s so slippery she’s liable to fall again.)

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin raced to MSNBC to call McCabe’s firing “very vindictive.” “It also is a reflection on the administration’s disdain for the FBI itself. I just think this is outrageous,” said Carlin. “The Department of Justice, the FBI, should be independent and this type of political behavior should be unacceptable.” Remember, he’s talking about Sessions firing McCabe based on the recommendation of the independent, apolitical OPR and IG. And it comes against the growing evidence the Obama DOJ and FBI were far from independent and up to all manner of political misbehavior.

This includes McCabe. Incredibly, CNN’s story on McCabe’s firing glossed over, even buried, the details of why he was fired. Their article speaks vaguely about media leaks and misleading investigators. What they don’t tell you is McCabe leaked his response to an allegation from FBI agents that he was blocking efforts to investigate the Clinton Foundation. The Stream had the details.

Democratic mouthpiece … er, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell found some advice for McCabe.

One suggestion from a McCabe supporter: if a friendly member of Congress hired him for a week he could possibly qualify for pension benefits by extending his service the extra days

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) March 17, 2018

Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan thought that a splendid idea. He offered McCabe a job.

Andrew call me. I could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in Washington, D.C. https://t.co/DYVP00Em0x

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) March 17, 2018

Please do, Congressman. Then explain to voters why you hired a white male of privilege who lied to federal investigators over an honest woman of color. Or hired McCabe over former supervisory special agent Robyn Gritz, whose career was destroyed by McCabe after she complained of sexual harassment. Here’s her story in her own words.

As for Mitchell and her media colleagues, please explain how exposing the origin of the Trump Russia investigation interferes with the Trump Russia investigation?

Simple Truth Takes a Backseat

So why the frantic, full-out defense of McCabe? Should be a simple matter. If an FBI agent is caught lying, he gets fired. McCabe was caught lying. OPR recommended he be fired. End of story.

So why? As mentioned, Obama administration officials have to go on the attack because McCabe has threatened to bring everyone down with him. But even if McCabe doesn’t do it time will. Drip-by-drip, day-by-day more proof emerges of how widespread the effort to clear Clinton and destroy Trump went. Those guilty cannot have the American people believing the revelations are anything other than politically motivated. They have to start spoiling the waters now.

Democrats have to go on the attack because Trump-Collusion is all they’ve got and assaulting Trump is all their voters want to hear. Watch what happens to the first Democratic politician to say, “Man, those people betrayed their oaths and deserve to be brought to justice.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein merely says she hasn’t seen any proof yet of collusion and the party’s ready to toss her to the curb.

The mainstream media? Half their cameras operate with a hate Trump lens. The other half with rose-colored lenses that filter the actions of the Obama Administration. Combined, their broadcasts deny their viewers the truth.

The truth about McCabe is only starting to emerge.