Eric Holder, the Attorney General, testified before a House subcommittee the other day and was asked about the Justice Department dropping the case against the two New Black Panthers who intimidated voters in Philadelphia two years ago (see video here and partial transcript here). Holder took offense with the statement by "poll watcher Bartle Bull ... that the New Black Panther Case was the most egregious example of voter intimidation he had ever seen":

"Think about that," Holder said. "When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate....to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people," said Holder, who is black.

Holder noted that his late sister-in-law, Vivian Malone Jones, helped integrate the University of Alabama.

"To compare that kind of courage, that kind of action, to say some Black Panther incident is of greater concern to us, historically, I think just flies in the face of history," Holder said with evident exasperation.