BEN STEIN WITH INTERESTING COMPARISON

Ben Stein has a very interesting comparison in the American Spectator today. In one corner, the Black Panthers, who intimidated voters in Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential election. They were charged and the plaintiffs inside the DOJ had won a default judgment when the Panthers didn't respond to the complaint. Eric Holders DOJ dropped all charges and continues to stonewall efforts to determine why.

In the other corner is James O'Keefe, the young self-proclaimed journalist who was one half of the tandem that busted ACORN with undercover video last summer. O'Keefe was arrested along with three others inside Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's office last week while allegedly wiretapping or tampering with the senator's phones. I must admit that in the days following O'Keefe's arrest, I found myself thinking he went too far and probably got himself into trouble he asked for.

However, in light of the comparison between he and the Black Panthers, along with it becoming apparent that O'Keefe may not have done anything illegal, Stein's piece is quite interesting:

During the last Presidential election, a gang of men calling themselves Black Panthers showed up at a polling place in Michigan. They threatened any voter who did not vote for Barack Obama. This was witnessed and documented. (I am suspicious of their involvement with the real Black Panthers, whom I knew well in New Haven, who had a little more finesse along with many, many faults.)

The bullying was barely reported in the media. Even though it is an unequivocal violation of voting rights laws, it was decided by Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, not to prosecute the case at all. Holder is the legal genius who thought of holding the trial for the self-styled master mind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in downtown Manhattan instead of in a military setting. He has recently backtracked on that.

A few days ago, four young conservatives posed as telephone repairmen and entered the branch office of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana in New Orleans. Their goal was to check to see if the phone system in the office was working. The men, under the leadership of a young media impresario named James O'Keefe, were querying why constituents of Sen. Landrieu had been unable to register negative feelings about Obamacare on the Senator's phone line. They had been told that perhaps the phones were out of order.

If it comes out that O'Keefe was unjustly skewered by the liberal media and was slandered / libeled after having done nothing illegal, he should sue.

If not, he should face justice, as should the Black Panthers who broke the law in Philadelphia.

Read the whole thing.