ERIC HOLDER, CALL YOUR OFFICE – AT 7:35 A.M. ET:  There's been a new development in the Obama administration's disgraceful handling of the Black Panther voter intimidation case.  You'll recall that members of the Black Panthers were originally charged with intimidating voters at polling places in Philadelphia in 2008.  Despite overwhelming evidence of guilt, the case was dropped by the Obama Justice Department.  From AP:

WASHINGTON – The conservative-dominated U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has published a report criticizing the Justice Department for its handling of voting rights accusations against the New Black Panther Party.

The report has been published on the commission's website. It says the department has failed to cooperate with the investigation and left open the question of whether political interference played a role in limiting action against the New Black Panther Party.

Two lawyers who formerly worked in the department's Voting Rights section have described hostility from senior officials and career attorneys to pursuing Voting Rights Act accusations against minorities who harass white voters.

The department has repeatedly denied that race played any role in its handling of the 2008 incident in Philadelphia.

The department investigated complaints that New Black Panther Party leaders King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson intimidated white voters at a Philadelphia polling place. A criminal investigation into the episode was dropped by the Bush administration, but the Justice Department under Obama obtained a narrower civil court order against the conduct than Bush officials sought.

Evidence obtained by the commission puts the department's "version of events into serious doubt," says the report. It relies heavily on the testimony of former Voting Rights lawyers Christopher Coates and J. Christian Adams.

COMMENT:  Of course, the AP spins the story to put the "blame" on conservative members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as if this were strictly a partisan affair.  But no amount of spin can cover up the politicization of the Justice Department under Eric Holder.  This case, equivalent to cases of black voters intimidated in previous decades, should have gone forward to prosecution and conviction, if anything to show that the Justice Department is race neutral.

Don't expect the mainstream media to do much with this report.

December 6, 2010