What? Bush administration let guns “walk” into Mexico?

by David Safier

Give credit to the Star for running it as a front page story using this headline:

Bush-era operation let guns 'walk,' too, federal officials say

And the operation was located right here.

When George W. Bush, a Republican, was president, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Tucson used a similar enforcement tactic in a program it called Operation Wide Receiver. The fact that there were two such ATF investigations years apart in separate administrations raises the possibility that agents in still other cases may have allowed guns to "walk."

I haven't heard of any investigations into Operation Wide Receiver. True, a botched ATF operation under Bush doesn't make the more recent Fast and Furious any less botched. But, along with the fact that both operations added only a small percentage to the overall gun traffic into Mexico, it helps put the whole thing into context.

Republicans, of course, don't like the idea of context for what they're trying to paint as the "scandal of the millenium."

Issa's team responded, saying that "throwing out the 'Bush Administration did it too defense' reeks of desperation."