Opinion

Identification, please

Why does Attorney General Eric Holder hate minorities?

For that matter, why are liberal groups like the Center for American Progress, the Advancement Project and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law all so fiendishly bigoted?

Those groups and the Justice Department all require photo ID to access their Washington offices, as a report from Pajamas Media pointed out last week.

So, by the warped logic deployed against state voter-ID laws, they must have some ulterior motive — presumably to keep out blacks and Hispanics, who are less likely to have government-issued ID.

Absurd?

After all, the list of everyday activities requiring a photo ID is close to endless. It includes:

* Picking up mail at the Post Office.

* Checking out darts at a pub.

* Buying Sudafed.

* Getting a library card.

* Cashing a check.

* Receiving federal or state welfare.

* Shopping at Costco.

* And taking the SAT.

Nevertheless, Holder has blocked voter-ID laws in Texas and South Carolina — which require voters to prove their identity at the polls — from taking effect, on the grounds that they violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Why the double standard?

Holder says voting is a different matter: “We talk about the need for ID to do a variety of things that are privileges. We are talking now about a constitutional right, something that is a fundamental right.”

About as fundamental as boarding an airplane — but try doing that without showing a government ID and you’ll quick-as-a-wink find yourself in a government cage.

Holder’s argument doesn’t hold up, because the government has long placed restraints on key constitutional rights.

Requiring voters to show a legal form of ID isn’t a heavy burden at all — it simply helps guarantee that American rights are being exercised properly and legally.

What kind of a lawman would have a problem with that? None at all — it’s just the politician in Holder that’s speaking out.

And that’s truly shameful.

As is far too often the case.