Dave Weigel, currently in parts far away, writes on FOX News’ Megyn Kelly and her “obsession” with the Justice Department’s controversial decision to waive a civil judement against members of the New Black Panther Party(NBPP) for voter intimidation:

This isn’t journalism. No one cares what the NBPP thinks about anything. This is minstrelsy, with a fringe moron set up like a bowling pin for Hannity to knock down. And that’s the role the NBPP plays on Fox, frequently….So why obsess over the Panthers? Is it turnabout for the way that liberals elevate the craziest tea party activists, or the way they call them racist? Because it’s obviously not a search for justice or a muckraking effort to discover reverse racism in the DOJ.

Fair enough. Perhaps it is just turnabout, even though I would contend there is a real problem if DOJ is consciously unwilling, as a matter of policy, to prosecute future black violators of the Voting Rights Act (see here if you don’t believe it happens).

Yet I am surprised at the apparent lack of self-awareness in Dave’s post. I’m not going to say I haven’t enjoyed his wall-to-wall coverage of the “birther” movement, but tell me: Just how is it different from this?

There are superficial differences. For example, surely fewer Americans share the Black Panther ideology than remain muddle-headed about Barack Obama’s birth certificate. But the last time I checked, Orly Taitz hadn’t threatened to kill anyone on camera, tried to scare anyone away from a polling place, or received preferential treatment from Barack Obama’s (or anyone else’s) Department of Justice.