I'm not sure which is more annoying, watching overeager right-wing Obama critics concoct gotcha stories that have more holes than a Dunkin' Donut shop, or then watching `wingers whine that the mainstream media won't cover their concocted stories that have more holes than a Dunkin Donut shop.

Over the weekend, blogger and columnist Michelle Malkin rather hysterically complained that the liberally biased press had ignored the completely manufactured gotcha tale about how the “racist” Obama administration had gone easy on members of the radical, fringe group, New Black Panther Party, with regards to a voter intimidation case that sprang out of the 2008 campaign. (Did I mention haters like Malkin have become very comfortable race baiting Obama lately?)

As Media Matters has meticulously documented over the last week, the Obama-hating right-wing press has gone bonkers over the New Black Panther Party story; a soggy story that's simply not supported by the facts.

So am I surprised the press hasn't paid the non-story much attention? No. Just like last week I wasn't surprised the press didn't pay any attention to the foolish outrage Obama-haters tried to cook up over the bogus NASA/Muslim non-story. (For that sorry episode, the Washington Examiner's Byron York conducted the obligitory whining about the lack of press coverage the story had generated.)

But uh-oh Michelle, it appears that liberal, Obama-loving, water-carrying journalists aren't the only ones in on the NBPP cover-up. So is the Republican Party, whose leaders basically haven't said boo about the New Black Panther Party 'story' since it 'broke' last week. Yep, Republicans also don't have time to waste on the supposed blockbuster story that's been portrayed in the far-right fever swamps as bigger than ABSCAM but just slightly smaller than Watergate.

If I had to venture a specific guess as to why it's been mostly crickets from the GOP, I'd say the silence stems from the fact that after a three-minute review of the facts, Republican members of Congress realized the story had no legs because not that long ago the Bush DOJ handled a similar voter intimidation case involving right-wing Minutemen activists the exact same way Obama's DOJ handled the New Black Panther case.

Oops!

So note to Malkin: If most Republican members of Congress won't pay attention to your plainly lame anti-Obama conspiracy and make it a top priority, why should the (liberal) media pay attention? Unless, of course, both groups are in cahoots to cover up the New Black Panther Party blockbuster.

Not that would be a story.