GOP commissioner: Civil Rights Commission's conservatives trying to use New Black Panther case “to topple” Obama admin

From the July 16 Politico article, “A conservative dismisses right-wing Black Panther 'fantasies' ”:

A scholar whom President George W. Bush appointed vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Abigail Thernstrom has a reputation as a tough conservative critic of affirmative action and politically correct positions on race.

But when it comes to the investigation the Republican-dominated commission is now conducting into the Justice Department's handling of an alleged incident of voter intimidation involving the New Black Panther Party - a controversy that has consumed conservative media in recent months - Thernstrom has made a dramatic break from her usual allies.

“This doesn't have to do with the Black Panthers, this has to do with their fantasies about how they could use this issue to topple the [Obama] administration,” said Thernstrom, who said members of the commission voiced their political aims “in the initial discussions” of the Panther case last year.

“My fellow conservatives on the commission had this wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president,” Thernstrom said in an interview with POLITICO.