If the Roles Were Reversed, She'd Be a Media Darling

Just imagine for a minute if some liberal activist infiltrated the NRA and undermined their cause. That person would be feted as a hero, would be doing the morning talk-show circuit, would have gushing magazine profiles and likely would be running for office before long.

But now it appears the NRA themselves may have used a spy to infiltrate anti-gun groups and everyone is horrified.

A gun-control activist who championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence groups is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association, and now those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs.

The suggestion that Mary Lou McFate was a double agent is contained in a deposition filed as part of a contract dispute involving a security firm. The muckraking magazine Mother Jones, in a story last week, was the first to report on McFate's alleged dual identity.

The NRA refused to comment to the magazine and did not respond to calls Tuesday from The Associated Press. Nor did McFate.

The 62-year-old former flight attendant and sex counselor from Sarasota, Fla., is not new to the world of informants.

She infiltrated an animal-rights group in the late 1980s at the request of U.S. Surgical, and befriended an activist who was later convicted in a pipe bomb attack against the medical-supply business, U.S. Surgical acknowledged in news reports at the time. U.S. Surgical had come under fire for using dogs for research and training.

Sorry, but someone convicted in a pipe bomb attack is not an activist. The proper word is terrorist.

McFate resurfaced in Pennsylvania and has since spent years as an unpaid board member of CeaseFirePA and an organization called States United to Prevent Gun Violence. She also twice pushed unsuccessfully to join the board of the nation's largest gun-control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"It raises some real concerns with the tactics of the NRA. If they've got one person, maybe they have more. If they've done this dirty trick, what else have they done?" said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, which planned to search its offices for listening devices and computer spyware.

I certainly don't condone such alleged "spying" on groups, but let's be honest, if the roles were reversed, I suspect the media would be looking upon Ms. McFate in a much different light. It's the same thing with "whistle-blowers" who are treated as celebrities when they take on major corporations; but when a "whistle-blower" named Linda Tripp spoke out against Bill Clinton, she was treated as Public Enemy No. 1.