Christopher Coates Takes the Stand

One day after Congress was disgracing itself with the Colbert clown testimony, former Dept. of Justice voting rights section chief Christopher Coates, a veteran Justice Department attorney, was testifying about the Justice Department's racism scandals. Although Coates was instructed by his superiors not to testify, he did so anyway, claiming whistleblower protection for his testimony.

Coates testified that the Department of Justice maintains a "hostile atmosphere" and "deep-seated opposition to race-neutral enforcement" of the Voting Rights Act.



There's some speculation around the blogosphere that the Stephen Colbert testimony was intended to distract from coverage of Christopher Coates. Quoting from Instapundit: Front page of Daily Caller: Colbert. Drudge led with Colbert until the news of the Klein & Zucker firings came out. Limbaugh led off today talking about Colbert. NRO has covered Colbert at The Corner, but not Coates. Washington Examiner headline: Colbert. Looking around other sites, I see more about Colbert than Coates.

Personally, I don't think these people in Washington have enough on the ball to think up something like that and pull it off. Also, it "explains" why they would do something so infinitely stupid as to invite Stephen Colbert to testify in character as an expert witness. Nope--I think they're just infinitely stupid, no explanation needed, and the two testimonies had nothing to do with one another.

Update. Jim Treacher at The Daily Caller has the news of one of the highlight quotes from the Christopher Coates testimony. He testified that Obama appointee Loretta King, acting head of the Civil Rights Division, ordered Coates to stop asking applicants whether they supported race neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. It would see that if you are WHITE, then you really have no civil rights. Coates said he went to Mississippi to take action under the VRA on behalf of white voters in Noxubee County, MS.

Said Coates, "What I observed on that election coverage was some of the most outrageous and blatant racially discriminatory behavior at the polls committed by Ike Brown and his allies that I have seen or had reported to me in my thirty-three plus years as a voting rights litigator."

We remember the breathless, endless media coverage of the alleged "political" hiring practices at the Department of Justice in the Bush administration. Well, evidently the Obama administration gets a pass on illegal, racist hiring at the DOJ. This Loretta King is a flat out piece of work. Reportedly she is hiring only confirmed liberal attorneys. "Insiders" (read, members of left wing profits like those sponsored by George Soros) only need apply. She is the woman at the DOJ who, along with Asst. Deputy Attorney General Steve Rosenbaum, dismissed the charges of voter intimidation during the 2008 election in Philadelphia in which two members of the New Black Panther Party stood outside the polling place in military-style fatigues and berets, one carrying a nightstick. Michelle Malkin has more about Friday's hearing.