In the news today is a request by Justice Thomas's wife asking Anita Hill for an apology for the lies she told to Congress during his confirmation hearings. Hill maintains all she told was the truth and refused the offer to apologize. While there are tell tale ways to determine who was probably telling the truth, that's all water under the bridge. However, here are a couple of interesting quotes I came across when Vice President Biden and Charles Ogeltee (Hill's attorney) were asked if the only reason Thomas was confirmed is due to the color of his skin: IS THOMAS ON THE COURT ONLY BECAUSE HE IS BLACK? BIDEN: "I think that the only reason Clarence Thomas is on the Court is because he is black. I don't believe he could have won had he been white. And the reason is, I think it was a cynical ploy by President Bush." OGLETREE: Biden's partly right. It was not a cynical ploy by Bush. It was a brilliant ploy by Bush, and I give him credit for it. It was perhaps the single most important decision that George Bush made as president. What he was able to do by nominating Clarence Thomas was to drive a wedge in the civil rights community that separated brother and sister, mother and father in ways that have never happened before. Because what he said was, `Here is a black man. Now let me see you criticize him. Are you criticizing him because he is black? Are you criticizing him because he is conservative? Are you criticizing him because you don't think he is competent? Whatever reason you're criticizing him, it's no loss for the president, because I will have ample reason to say, `I'll never nominate (a black) again. I will never put anyone through what he went through.' So it was a brilliant move on the part of the president. And what he did was show the very soft underbelly in the liberal community that could not tolerate a challenge that really tested the essence of racial politics.... I think that what Bush did was not cynical, but it was from my point of view, and other agree with this, a confirmation that Republicans strongly believe in affirmative action. Justice Thomas was the affirmative action candidate. He was not the best person for the job. He was not the best African American for the job. He was not a brilliant judge... An interesting side note to Ogeltree's comments is that I had a chance recently to sit in on a conversation about the Supreme Court (I love law and especially the Supreme Court) and the heads of two liberal law schools both agreed that of all the current justices, Thomas is far and away the most competent and constitutionally correct justice on the court. They also agreed it pained them to say that.
