The conservative celebrity and economist argues for clemency for James O’Keefe because, well, “when was the last time you read about federal charges against a liberal reporter for going undercover?” He contrasts the treatment of O’Keefe — one of four activists currently being investigated for shady behavior in the local office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) — with the treatment of the New Black Panther Party. He does so while mangling a lot of facts.
“During the last Presidential election,” Stein writes, “a gang of men calling themselves Black Panthers showed up at a polling place in Michigan.” It was in Philadelphia. “They threatened any voter who did not vote for Barack Obama.” They did their stupid visibility outside a heavily Democratic polling place that went 596-13 for Obama.
“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.” The decision was made far below Holder, by Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli.
Special attention must be paid to Stein’s smarmy closing lines:
Mr. Holder, here is a line from the civil rights struggle I worked in before you were born: We are not afraid. And we’re not going away.
Holder was born in 1951 — he’s only seven years younger than Stein. This rush to portray the attorney general as an overzealous, race-obsessed boy who needs to be disciplined reveals more about Stein than it does about O’Keefe.