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The Spectacle Blog
I agree with Ramesh Ponnuru that the Post’s Jonathan Capehart is way off base on the Virginia Thomas/Anita Hill flap, almost viciously so, especially about calling the cops. There is not even a remotely plausible claim of harassment or of a threat or of anything else even hemi-demi-semi-illegal in the phone call.
That said, several notes. First, I wish Ginni Thomas, one of the world’s great ladies, hadn’t made such a call right now. It was sure to get out, and it distracts attention from the conservative electoral message. But I’m not in her shoes, and there is nothing inherently wrong, and everything utterly understandable, about her desire — even all these years later — to find some sort of resolution to this issue that so hurt her and her husband.
Now, most importantly, the very brief, very powerful case against Hill and in favor of believing Clarence Thomas is that Hill’s timeline NEVER worked. Ever. The most dramatic proof of this was when her friend, Judge Hoerchner, originally said that Hill told her about the “harassment” at a time when Hill didn’t even work for Thomas. She later tried to walk back that testimony after lawyer Janet Napolitano interrupted her and pulled her aside to talk to her — but her original statement was so definitive as to leave little room for doubt.
There also were problems, in multiple ways, with the timing of
the alleged reference to Long Dong Silver.
And so on.
The reason most senators and most Americans at the time believed Thomas rather than Hill is that his testimony was much more believable on the merits. Period.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/10/21/belated-note-re-ginni-thomas
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Interested Conservative| 10.21.10 @ 3:38PM
In a curious coincidence I just finished reading Justice T.'s autobiography. Wholly apart from A. Hill it is a fascinating read, particularly the very favorable comments about Juan Williams (a double coincidence).
Even the comparatively brief portions concerning A. Hill herself are perfunctory, considering how then Judge Thomas essentially did nothing, and the little he did was routine manager/employee relations.
All that said, it's still brassy of Mrs. Thomas to have made this call, and of all the reactions, one of Ms. Hill's comments may be most germane - she basically understood why Mrs. Thomas would call. Of course, she then goes on to further discredit herself, particularly with the reference to the FBI.
Finally, I'm not going to waste time by going back over the transcripts, but in a weird way I wonder if the final vote gave many democrats the chance to actually vote against confirmation on truly principled philosophical grounds considering how many of them really knew what sexual harrassment was (as perpetrators) and that this wasn't it and didn't come close in evidence or fact. Not that any of them could state as much publicly, but as a purely internal or psychological justification.
Oldefarte| 10.22.10 @ 12:07PM
Being vaguely aware of the horrendous personal attack upon him during his SCOTUS hearings by Democrats, I'd only say that I have the utmost respect and admiration for Judge Clarance Thomas for his courage/guts to proclaim the conservative viewpoint considering the liberal Democrat philosophy among African-Americans in general. He is a tremendous credit to the human race and is a truly honorable person!!!!!!