GETTING TO THE TRUTH - AT 9:22 A.M. ET:  A story that caused a seething anger among those devoted to equal justice is back in the news, and we have some hope now that justice will indeed be done.  A Washington Times exclusive:

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has begun an official inquiry into the dismissal in May of a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party and two of its members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during the November general elections.

The inquiry is disclosed in an Aug. 28 letter to Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee who first raised questions about the dismissal in May and asked unsuccessfully that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. make available the head of the department's Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division for a closed-door briefing on the decision.

In the letter, Mary Patrice Brown, acting OPR counsel, told the veteran congressman from Texas that the office had "initiated an inquiry into the matter" and that it would "contact you with the results of our inquiry once it is completed." A copy of the letter was obtained by The Washington Times.

COMMENT:  The dismissal was an outrage.  The Black Panthers clearly intimidated people at the polls, much as white supremacists used to do in the pre-Civil Rights South.  The dismissal stunned even allies of the Obama administraiton, although, with characters like Van Jones running around Washington, it shouldn't have been surprising.

Now let's see if the Office of Professional Responsibility will do the right thing, or continue the cover-up.

September 10, 2009