Posted on 12/06/2017 5:57:59 PM PST by Kaslin
It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, but after reading this op-ed from Jay Kaganoff in the Washington Post, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of it. After the cacophony of calls for Hollywood moguls and media figures to lose their jobs and elected officials to resign or be removed following allegations of sexual assault and harassment, it was inevitable that Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’ name would eventually come up.
Kaganoff titles his piece, Fellow conservatives, it’s time to call on Clarence Thomas to resign. The author makes at least a partially convincing case, depending on where you personally set the bar for convictions in the Court of Public Opinion. If allegations which can’t or won’t be tested before a jury are enough to remove senators, congressmen and movie studio chiefs, why not a Supreme Court justice? Kaganoff reviews the evidence from Thomas’ confirmation hearings and believes that Anita Hill’s claims pass the smell test.
It’s always a question of balance between believing the victims and avoiding mob mentality. But there are a few factors that tilt toward Hill’s version of the story.
It wasn’t exactly his word against hers; she had witnesses whom the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, did not call up. And Biden is a Democrat, so there goes the “they only attacked him because he’s conservative” narrative. He was confirmed by a Senate under Democratic control.
In an interview on CNN, conservative journalist Bethany Mandel talks about how coming forward affects women. “This will be the only thing these women are ever known for. That’s not something someone wants to sign up for.” Hill is a law-school professor with a respected career in her own right, but she has to carry this around with her — without even the satisfaction of having her harasser punished.
I would suggest we apply the same test to Thomas as we have to others in the spotlight such as Franken, Conyers and Moore. As to credibility, were there multiple victims making such reports? In this case it seems not. Did the accuser make the accusation or at least tell other witnesses at the time? Well, perhaps not at the time it happened, but contemporaneous witnesses were heard from. Did the accused own up to the deed and apologize? Not in this case, but neither have some others who are being called on to step aside.
There’s also the severity of the actions being alleged, keeping in mind that there is still a definite line between harassment and assault. Anita Hill told of some extremely brutish language which, if true, would certainly amount to harassment in 2017. But forcible, unwanted contact such as groping a sleeping woman’s breasts didn’t really come up so I suppose we’re on the harassment side of the fence here as opposed to assault.
I don’t know. I’m having a hard time mustering the same level of “They Must Go Now” reaction when considering the stories of Justice Thomas and Anita Hill, but if we believe her accusations they can’t simply be excused, either. The problem here is that Thomas has rejected all of these accusations all along. There’s no reason to think he would suddenly admit to the alleged deeds and sheepishly resign. At that point, you have no option to remove him from the bench short of impeachment. Would alleged but unproven harassment rise to the required level of offense for the House to bring the charges and the Senate convict him?
Color me skeptical on both counts, even if the Democrats held the majority in both chambers. And I’m not saying this out of convenience because he’s one of the conservative justices on the bench. Were he removed right now, President Trump would replace him with a new name off of his famous list and you’d have a new, probably younger conservative judge on the bench. This is a question of whether or not both Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill are being treated as fairly and impartially as is possible under the circumstances. And unlike Mr. Kaganoff, I don’t see such a clear answer on this one.
I, for one, never believed Al Franken should resign ... though I predicted he would under exactly these circumstances -- with Democrats pushing him out of office.
Anita Hill’s story was a total fabrication... so says an “inside connection” who had first hand knowledge of all the players from the SBA days back when the confirmation hearings were going on. Considering this person was a die-hard democrat and still held fast to the assertion that Hill’s tale never happened and the whole thing was a set-up, said a lot to me at the time.
I love Justice Thomas, but I think he should consider resigning while Trump is POTUS AND the Republicans hold the Senate. He’s 70 and can’t last forever.
I’m going to say the exact same thing I said about Franken:
>>We have to get past this political correctness crap.
>>Leftists do it because they are atheists with no other means of escaping (temporarily) their own misery than to project their sins/guilt on someone else.
>>WE MUST NOT PLAY ALONG WITH THIS SLIMY GAME.
You’ve lost your mind.
Is my mind failing me? The dirty joke about the can was all it was right?
Hardly like having a rape button on your desk.
The thing that pissed me off as much as the “high tech lynching” was old man Bush saying he nominated Thomas because he was the most qualified. He was nominated because he was black and replacing the first black justice. Personally, I don’t think Bush thought he would be confirmed.
Anita Hills claims have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked.
She had to be lead by the nose to understand she was being instructed to make false charges against Thomas.
The “porn” he was accused of having “all over the house”, was a single Playboy pin-up on the fridge. (He was 27 and single at the time)
I’ve got the book “The Real Anita Hill” for reference.
I remember reading at the time Thomas changed jobs a few times and Hill followed him. Sexually abused women always volunteer to go through it over and over! We are idiots for not understanding it./s
This whole show began to make me realize DC is a swamp
“Progressives are racists, and they view blacks as property — THEIR property’
Dang, you nailed it!
Justice Breyer grabbed my crotch. He should step down.
It wasn’t in the Exorcist, it was in some porn movie called Long Dong Silver or something like that, and it had been involved in a court decision somewhere.
Quoth the Turtle, “Never Moore”.
Be careful what you wish for.
looking for a second bite of the apple
The problem then - when Thomas was confirmed - has not changed but only gotten worse.
That problem is that what ought to be only legal claims that could possibly be settled in a court of law, are not the only kind of allegations being made, and whether they are that level of accusations or not they are given standing as “guilty” on mere allegations proven in no court of law.
Frankly, if I were some of those for whom allegations are being made, I’d say: “Fine, sue me, and we’ll see how it comes out in court; otherwise don’t expect me to act on mere allegations that I believe are false.” I said “some”.
If I knew the allegations to be true - which I never believed in the case of Thomas - it would be a matter of whether or not a legal line was crossed.
If a legal line was not crossed, I’d do no more than apologize for the “misunderstanding”.
If I had crossed a legal line, even if a statute of limitations had run out, then and only then MIGHT I consider resigning from some position. It would depend a lot on the whole context.
I think all those who have already resigned some position due only to publicly aired allegations, if I were them I’d be considering the options I outline above.
If Clarence Thomas should resign, then Congress should seek to annul the entire Clinton era of laws and policies.
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