I Pity The Judge!

When I was a little kid I loved watching the A-Team, maybe it was my 7 yr old mentality, but seeing those four guys blow stuff up was a lot of fun. Out of that pack, the most famous was Mr. T and people still use his lines today. For some reason I thought of his euphemism today when I read about Clarence Thomas' latest interview. It is incredible to me that someone like him sits on the highest court in the country. What he thinks of the other eight justices is telling of his character and what it means to have him on the bench.

From U.S. News:

There's a reason why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't talk much from the bench: He thinks judges should be seen and not heard. "My colleagues should shut up!" he says. In a rare scolding of his fellow judges, Thomas Wednesday night took off after those who ask questions and debate cases out loud during oral arguments while defending his own, oft-criticized, silent treatment.

Asked at an event honoring Winston Churchill sponsored by independent Michigan school Hillsdale College if he would talk more from the bench to "give us relief" from the other chatty judges, Thomas said, "I don't think it's my job to give you relief." Thomas noted that through history, most top judges rarely asked questions. "What's changed? Have the laws changed? What's changed? And why are all these questions necessary? That should be the question," he demanded of the near epidemic level of judicial questioning at Supreme Court hearings.

Hmmm, where do I start....First of all the other justices would never disrespect one of their fellows by telling them to "shut up." This isn't the Jerry Springer Show, its the top of the Judiciary branch. Second, judges should ask questions. They are there to make sure laws are followed and are constitutional. If they need to ask questions, then it shows they have active minds. Clearly, Thomas' is shut down like Fort Knox.

Oh and yeah, laws do change. They change all the time, that is why we have legislators to craft bills that fit to our civilized societies. When this country was founded people still found it respectable to have duels with actual pistols. Women didn't vote and Thomas' ancestors were slaves...so um yeah, sorry Clarence, you are absolutely wrong. Putting him on the Supreme Court was one of the bigger mistakes of 1991.

Anita Hill Hits Back

Back when the better Bush was in office (doesn't say much) he nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court bench. The confirmation process was riveting to say the least. The nation watched with amazement as pubic hairs on soda cans made it into the discussion. Nearly twenty years later Thomas came out with a book and he doesn't spare a single liberal, including Anita Hill. Well she didn't let him have the last word, the nation (circa 2007) deserves to hear both sides.

From RawStory:

"I stand by my testimony."

So writes Anita Hill in Tuesday's New York Times, the woman whose sexual harrassment charges unsettled the nomination hearings of Clarence Thomas some 16 years ago.

Addressing his new book, “My Grandfather’s Son," Hill, a Brandeis sociology professor currently in residence at Wellesley, writes, "I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me."

"Justice Thomas offers a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears that Republican senators made about me when I testified before the Judiciary Committee — that I was a “combative left-winger” who was “touchy” and prone to overreacting to “slights,” she says. "A number of independent authors have shown those attacks to be baseless. What’s more, their reports draw on the experiences of others who were familiar with Mr. Thomas’s behavior, and who came forward after the hearings. It’s no longer my word against his."

Like any conservative nut, Thomas clearly forgets the facts that get in the way of portraying himself as a victim. He used racial stereotypes as an excuse for his ridiculous (and illegal) behaviors, not to mention judicial opinions that even make Justice Scalia blush. Blaming his woes on the media isn't going to work either. Black people are ashamed of him and so are many others, including me.