A recent Justice Department report found that John Tanner, the former head of DOJ’s voting-rights section, told a colleague he liked his coffee “Mary Frances Berry style — black and bitter.” Berry, an African-American, was at the time the chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights, which works to protect voting rights.
This is hardly the only piece of evidence that Tanner — who it it appears is still on the DOJ payroll, and still working on voting issues — might not be the best person to be safeguarding Americans’ right to vote.
See Tanner’s record in all its glory:
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
Late Update: We refer in the video to Tanner’s support for a Georgia voter ID law that an appeals court later likened to a Jim Crow era poll tax. But we should have mentioned that the US Supreme Court ultimately upheld the law.
Late Late Update: In fact, the US Supreme Court has not ruled on the Georgia law. A district court at first rejected it, then upheld it after it had been modified so that voters could obtain an ID for free. That decision is currently being appealed.
