So the Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating whether or not there was impropriety on the part of Civil Rights Division attorneys in the New Black Panther case. Apparently, the conservatives left in the division have been leaking to the Bush stalwarts who have left, and as Matt Gertz writes, veterans of Bradley Schlozman's politicized tenure Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams are freaking out:
Both are especially offended by the reports from Adams' sources that OPR is considering whether Adams and other members of the New Black Panthers trial team may have themselves acted improperly in the manner in which they pursued the case. Of course, investigating allegations of misconduct by DOJ attorneys is literally OPR's function.
Specifically, Gertz suggests that OPR might be wondering why Adams worked with GOP political operative Mike Roman in trying to put his evidence together, including letting Roman interview witnesses for him. That actually strikes me as a much more obvious instance of partisan misconduct than the original scandal.
The big irony here of course, is that the current head of OPR, Robin Ashton, was passed over for promotions during the Bush administration, when the leadership at DoJ was politicized. In an example of the comedic levels projection that characterizes most conservative writing on this stuff, Adams calls her a "militant leftist partisan."
