Sworn into office by Vice President Joe Biden this afternoon, B. Todd Jones was the perfect man to become the Director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for the Obama Administration.

That is not a compliment.

A detail the Washington Post and assorted other ne’er do wells left out of Jones bio as they lauded him today was the fact that Jones was the chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys (AGAC). e sat in on at least some of the same high-level calls as acting Kenneth Melson, who was forced out for his role in the scandal:

An overlooked detail of the personnel shuffling that has occurred in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious: current Acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones was in a position to be as culpable regarding the gunwalking plot as was the removed director, Kenneth Melson.

Before taking over for Melson in a DOJ push to appear to have done “something,” Jones was the chairman of the attorney general’s Advisory Committee. He sat in on Fast and Furious calls as early as October 26,  2009 — a meeting Melson also attended.

With the personnel move to Jones, control merely shifted from one possible co-conspirator to another, though the administration assured that they still held a tight rein over the new acting director with the choice of Jones.

Attorney General Eric Holder—who remains the first and only cabinet official to be held in criminal and civil contempt of Congress—and  Barack Obama weren’t seeking an honorable man to become the new ATF director. They wanted to find a co-conspirator with a vested interested in keeping 90,000 documents from the Fast and Furious plot hidden from congressional investigators.

Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?