IT'S ABOUT TIME – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  No guarantees here, but at least the Justice Department is acknowledging that, Houston, we have a problem.  From Fox:

The Justice Department's internal watchdog said Monday it would launch an investigation into the Justice Department's enforcement of civil rights laws, eliciting praise from Republicans on Capitol Hill who have been blasting the Justice Department for months over a controversial voting rights case.

For more than a year, Republicans and others have been questioning why the Obama administration reversed course on a federal lawsuit against two members of the New Black Panther Party, who were videotaped outside a Philadelphia polling station on Election Day 2008. The two were dressed in military-style uniforms, and one was holding a nightstick. The issue escalated in June when a former Justice Department attorney, J. Christiam Adams, alleged it was all part of an Obama administration policy to avoid prosecuting minorities, an allegation the Justice Department has strongly denied.

On Monday, the Justice Department's Inspector General said his office does not have legal authority or jurisdiction to investigate the handling of the New Black Panther Party case specifically, but it does have authority to look "more broadly [at] the overall enforcement of civil rights laws by the Voting Section," including "information about cases such as the New Black Panther Party matter and others."

COMMENT:  If the probe is conducted honestly, it could be one of the most important Washington investigations in years.  Dropping that case was an outrage, but the action was consistent with the hard-left views of many of the people Eric Holder has brought into the Justice Department. 

But the key words here are "conducted honestly."  Sometimes a probe just provides a legal cover-up.  We might also add that skilled bureaucrats have ways of holding back information, making a thorough probe impossible.

Stand by on this one.

September 14, 2010