JHB
JHB's JournalThe reason Thomas was put on the SC was...
...NOT because he was the most qualified jurist. He wasn't.
...NOT because he was the most qualified black jurist. He wasn't.
...NOT because he was the most qualified black conservative jurist. He wasn't.
He was the most qualified black conservative with reliable but obfuscatable views on abortion & other subjects, and was young enough that he'd stay on the court for decades.
The Democratic senators were initially ready to give him a pass, since 1) they didn't look forward to another SC nomination battle, and 2) initially the black community was receptive to Thomas -- not enthusiastic, but not inclined to oppose -- and a fight against him wouldn't be well received.
At the time I thought Thomas should have been voted down just because of his lackluster record and ignoring conflict of interest (Thomas failed to recuse himself in a case involving the Ralston Purina company, where his political mentor Sen. John Danforth owned millions in stock and had brothers on the board of directors. Thomas' decision in favor of Purina directly benefited his pals).
Black opinion didn't shift until later in the process, after Thurgood Marshall made his "a black snake is still a snake" comment. The senators were finally forced to take a harder line when the harassment charges leaked out, and giving Thomas a pass would piss off another Democratic constituency: women fighting workplace harassment.
But all that happened too late: by that point conservatives were ginned up in support and the rest of the establishment didn't want another high-profile fight, so the Thomas hearings were kept to a he-said-she-said with Anita Hill (Angela Wright was shunted off to the side), giving the senators their excuse to just put it behind them.
So here we are, a quarter-century later, and he's still a lackluster jurist who ignores conflicts of interest, and is a reliable conservative operative in the courts.
Bill O'Reilly Complains About Americans Being 'Self-Absorbed and Ignorant'
via Crooks and Liars:
Fox's Bill O'Reilly is very upset that many Americans can't answer the same questions that are asked of immigrants who take our citizenship test, and used his Talking Points Memo segment this Monday to rail about it.
This from the man who works for a network that literally makes their viewers dumber, that constantly rails against funding of public education in favor of school vouchers and charter schools, and who has been carrying water for the party that's responsible for getting rid of civics classes in our public schools to begin with.
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O’Reilly said America is in decline because so many citizens are not paying attention and are not interested in the welfare of the country.
O'Reilly's right about the problem. You'll never get him to admit his and his network's part in contributing to it though.
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