Today's Washington Post has a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek story about the U.S. Civil Rights Commission:

It's safe to say that Thernstrom and Berry are not the best of buddies.
Several clues point to this conclusion. First, there was the 2001 "Nightline" show in which the two commissioners kept interrupting each other until you thought they might start biting each other's ears off. A few months later, they called each other liars at a Senate hearing. Then Thernstrom had these choice words to say about the chairwoman:
"Mary Frances Berry is a totalitarian. She's a book burner and she constantly lies."
Hey, Abigail, don't be bashful! Tell us what you really think.
But Berry and Thernstrom aren't the only commissioners who trade insults. At one meeting, Cruz Reynoso, the commission's vice chairman, berated Thernstrom for her "lack of veracity." Commissioner Jennifer Braceras once called Berry a "left-wing provocateur." Commissioner Christopher Edley once described one of Thernstrom's books as a "crime against humanity." And . . . well, you get the idea.
Obviously the civil rights commission, created by an act of Congress in the 1950s, is a hotbed of nasty feuds and personal attacks. But it's more than that. It's also a hotbed of petty squabbling and bickering.

For another nasty, partisan and fun account of the Commission and its chairwoman, Ms. Berry, check out this George Will column:

The commission has no serious function, other than to illustrate how far things have evolved. Its head is a black woman, Mary Frances Berry, who, like many antebellum plantation owners and today's civil rights lobby, believes blacks cannot cope with life in predominantly white America, that they are comprehensively victimized and must be perpetual wards of paternalistic government.

The author of today's piece, Peter Carlson, also points out the following:

Most of the commissioners -- part-timers paid $35,000 a year -- are college professors. Many are lawyers. Four -- Berry, Reynoso, Braceras and Edley -- are both college professors and lawyers. This cross-training enables the commission to combine the petty infighting of academia with the nitpicking and hair-splitting of the legal profession.

By that logic, the worst job in America should be that of a law professor. Are you going to take this insult lying down, Professors Reynolds and Volokh?