Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.

Holder's frustration over the criticism became evident during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.

The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.

"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, and to compare what people were subjected to there to what happened in Philadelphia—which was inappropriate, certainly that…to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line, who risked all, for my people," said Holder, who is black...

In a series of questions and comments earlier in the hearing, Culberson insisted that race had infected the decision-making process. "There's clearly evidence, overwhelming evidence, that your Department of Justice refuses to protect the rights of anybody other than African Americans to vote," the Texas Republican said. "There's a pattern of a double standard here."

"I would disagree very vehemently with the notion that there's overwhelming evidence that that is in fact true," Holder replied. "This Department of Justice does not enforce the law in a race-conscious way."

Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said the Black Panthers "should not have been there." But he said the GOP was making too much out of a fleeting incident involving a couple of people.

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Editor's Note: Yes, think about that, Mr. Holder. It is an appropriate comparison. In the 1960s South, people would wield sticks at Black people, threatening them should they show up at a polling place. Yet, in 2008, Black people are wielding sticks at White people, threatening them should they show up to vote. And your department -- the US Department of Justice -- refrained from following through on the prosecution of those who attempted to disenfranchise voters. Good thing past US Attorney General's had more ethical integrity than you, Mr. Holder. You, sir, are a disgrace, not only to the nation, but to your race. You, sir, are the "coward."