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The Washington Times’s Jerry Seper reports that Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli approved a recommendation by Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King to drop voter intimidation charges against members of the militant New Black Panthers.

Shocking.

(Note to DOJ Public Affairs staff: I’m being sarcastic).

What’s this Black Panther matter about? You can read our previous reports here and here, or I can just tell you: It’s about Republicans trying to portray the Obama Justice Department as politicized. You know, the way Democrats said the Bush Justice Department was politicized.

The Obama DOJ is highly political, yes. But politicized, as in Brad Schlozman politicized? No.

The Washington Times says unnamed line attorneys in the Civil Rights Division worked for five months to build the voter intimidation case against members of the militant black power group, who were videotaped in paramilitary uniforms and brandishing a nightstick at a Philadelphia polling place last fall.

But King, who’s been acting head of the division since January, told Perrelli she had “concerns” about the case during  a regular review meeting, the Times reported. King recommended some of the charges be dismissed, and Perrelli agreed.

I don’t know anything about the seriousness of the alleged offenses, or the strength of the case. But it does seem these unnamed line attorneys were a source for the Times’s article. So, who are they? I suspect they were Bush-era ideologues, but I don’t know. Tips welcome at mjacoby@mainjustice.com.