Uh-Oh: Designated Fall Guy For Fast & Furious, Acting ATF Head Melson, Maybe Doesn't Feel Like Being The Fall Guy?

Read it either at Sipsey Street Regulars, a blog following Gunwalker closely, or the original in the LAT.

The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.

Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.

...

"He is saying he won't go," said one source close to the situation, who asked for anonymity because high-level discussions with Melson remained fluid. "He has told them, 'I'm not going to be the fall guy on this.' "

But get this: Melson needs the approval of DoJ to testify before Congress. And for some reason, DoJ hasn't granted it yet.

Meanwhile, the WaPo has been spinning like a top for Team Gun Violence, claiming that Issa was fully briefed and raised "no objections." He calls that an "outright lie."

And DoJ was shopping the claim around, looking for a dupe to publish it.

Spokesman Hill told The Daily Caller that the Justice Department has been shopping the Issa story around town. “We have had people who have contacted us before the Washington Post,” he said. “They told us people in the Justice Department were trying to push this story and I think a number of publications didn’t think it was credible or, for whatever reason, decided not to run it.”

More on the Obama Administration's very own Captain America, the supposed "Fourth Estate" of our media.

I don't think it's a separate estate. It's just the PR division.

posted by Ace at 10:00 PM

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