Virginia Thomas appears to be looking for some publicity

[redkatrampant]

Crap, crap, crap... I just wrote out an explanation and it went POOF. Lets re-try this...

Bottom line: we are 2 years out from our presidential elections. This is prime time for presidential hopefuls to start testing the waters. I think this is politically motivated. One rumor going around up here is that Clarence may be bored with the bench and is hoping for a presidential run (which would be STUPID, given that his job is secured for life and in the long term gives him more influence on the shape of this country, than any president would ever have, IMO). OR: his wife is aiming for a run, given that she has started a conservative group that focuses on going against the Obama administration.

By gaining an apology, Clarence or wife could use it as a sympathetic ploy in a presidential bid. By not gaining an apology, both could use it as a key to say that Hill was nothing more than an ongoing product of the Demo machine trying to keep a conservative down.

I could be wrong... but yeah... political aspirations on a grand scale is my theory for this...

I have to agree that there is some testing of the waters here. There is also the possibility that she was put up to it by someone behind the scenes that is connected to her group. THAT person could be trying to see how things flow for their purposes OR hers. Who knows.

As for making the call public, could she have felt threatened? Who knows.

IMHO the call was tacky, and the reaction to it was tacky.

 

[Velouria]

I think she should ask for an apology and I think Anita Hill should give her one.

Believe it or not, I agree. And I think it should go something like this:

"Mrs. Thomas, I am sorry. Sorry that your husband lied to you."

 

[Nova]

Apparently, word travels slowly to some quarters. Even the guy who quite literally "wrote the book" on how Anita Hill "lied" admits it wasn't true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Anita_Hill



I thought the whole thing was a farce, but Prof. Hill had no choice but to answer the questions put to her. I've yet to see any evidence she answered untruthfully.

 

[RLynne]

Have we ever elected a president who came from the bench?

The repubs need to find someone qualified to run in the next election, but IMHO, there's got to be better qualified people than Thomas.

JMHO
fran

Don't think so. Taft was both President and Chief of the US Supreme Court, but he was president first. And I think he's the only one.

 

[believe09]

Why?? Why shouldn't the reach out to her directly? Why did Ms. Hill have to make the call public? What does she gain from it? it's not like Mrs. Thomas was announcing it to the news media....

They had already been that route after they published their book. Asked for an apology. Publicly.

 

[believe09]

If Mrs. is the power behind the throne for Clarence Thomas, he should be very nervous. Her own family appears to be quite confused about this antic as well.

 

[LinasK]

Why?? Why shouldn't the reach out to her directly? Why did Ms. Hill have to make the call public? What does she gain from it? it's not like Mrs. Thomas was announcing it to the news media....

She didn't, she notified the security department at her university. They notified the F.B.I., then the story went public...
When Hill heard the voicemail, she contacted Brandeis' public safety office, which in turn informed the FBI. http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_...contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

 

[Morag]

...apparently 'some people' will call up people they haven't seen or heard from for years, and leave odd messages on the phone.

Oh, yeah, it's called "dialing while drunk."

 

[LinasK]

Friday, Oct 22, 2010 16:19 ET

By Steve Kornacki

You've probably seen that Clarence Thomas' ex-girlfriend has broken her two-decade silence and publicly stated that the Supreme Court justice was "obsessed" with *advertiser censored* when they dated.
While Lillian McEwen's statement doesn't by itself prove that Anita Hill was telling the truth when she accused Thomas of sexual harassment back in 1991, it does come close. After all, Thomas was indignant at his confirmation hearings at the suggestion that he enjoyed -- and enjoyed talking about -- *advertiser censored*. And in countering Hill's charges, it was his supposed good character and moral righteousness that Thomas' defenders stressed over and over. As Strom Thurmond, one of the 52 senators who voted to confirm Thomas even after hearing Hill's testimony, put it: "'I do not believe Judge Thomas is capable of the kind of behavior Professor Hill described."
But now we have more reason than ever to believe that Thomas was not being truthful -- that he was an avid connoisseur of adult content and that he was prone to bring it up in conversations with women. McEwen, whose own relationship with Thomas was cited as proof of his solid character during the '91 hearings, now says that he would frequently describe to her the physical attributes of his female coworkers -- and that he even asked one woman at work what her bra size was. http://www.salon.com/news/the_supre...ar_room/2010/10/22/clarence_thomas_anita_hill

 

[OrdinaryLife]

Good grief... Of course there is some kind of agenda. After nearly 20 years the woman decides to make a phone call and demands a public apology? Get a grip, get over it, and move on. I sure as hell don't care about Clarence Thomas, the media grabbing wife, or Anita Hill. I forgot what anyone even looked like never mind the names. Sounds like a potential National Enquirer story. Or, maybe the Globe where one may be be an actual alien....

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Clarence Thomas' ex-girlfriend was on CNN....I wonder how he feels about Virginia's phone call now?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/25/scotus.thomas.mcewen/index.html?hpt=C1

 

[LinasK]

Clarence Thomas' ex-girlfriend was on CNN....I wonder how he feels about Virginia's phone call now?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/25/scotus.thomas.mcewen/index.html?hpt=C1

Sad, that Ms. McEwen, who is a former prosecutor and administrative law judge didn't back Anita Hill with her own allegations during Clarence Thomas's Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court!!! There is NO WAY he should have been allowed to be on the court, and he lied when he called it a "high-tech lynching"!!!:furious:

 

[Trino]

Sad, that Ms. McEwen, who is a former prosecutor and administrative law judge didn't back Anita Hill with her own allegations during Clarence Thomas's Senate confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court!!! There is NO WAY he should have been allowed to be on the court, and he lied when he called it a "high-tech lynching"!!!:furious:

Apparently, her testimony would not have been admitted because the allegations were between Hill and Thomas.

Clarence Thomas is almost always silent on the bench, has almost nothing to say. So, this is the type of guy we want to judge our most important cases? There's no way to remove him because he's done nothing wrong (really has done nothing) since attaining his position.

 

[angelmom]

What a weird story. Can't wait for the other shoe to drop.

Seriously, it's been 20 years. If she hasn't apologized by now, she's probably not going to. Get over yourself.

But contacting security? Did you read the transcript of the phone message? I am getting scarier robocalls from every politician in a tri-state area! (I cannot wait for November!)

And it was on her public work phone, not some unlisted number like a stalker. The FBI? Are you freaking kidding me? Don't they have more important stuff to do? Like find Kyron, Zahra, Haleigh, etc?

All of the people involved in this story are crazy a$$ weird and I think there's more to it...both now and 20 years ago. I used to care what it was. Now I just wish they'd all shut up.

 

[miimaa]

I always thought Anita Hill was telling the truth. In fact, I can't believe how SHE was treated during and after the hearings. It never came out that Clarence Thomas was a corporate attorney for Monsanto... a terrible company. If you haven't watched "Food, Inc." watch it and learn about Monsanto and Clarence Thomas.

 

[LinasK]

I always thought Anita Hill was telling the truth. In fact, I can't believe how SHE was treated during and after the hearings. It never came out that Clarence Thomas was a corporate attorney for Monsanto... a terrible company. If you haven't watched "Food, Inc." watch it and learn about Monsanto and Clarence Thomas.

I totally agree!!! I vividly remember arguing with my parents and my boyfriend at the time about it. He & I didn't last, small wonder!
Clarence owes her a major apology and should never have made it to the Supreme Court!!!

 

[Nova]

What a weird story. Can't wait for the other shoe to drop.

Seriously, it's been 20 years. If she hasn't apologized by now, she's probably not going to. Get over yourself.

But contacting security? Did you read the transcript of the phone message? I am getting scarier robocalls from every politician in a tri-state area! (I cannot wait for November!)

And it was on her public work phone, not some unlisted number like a stalker. The FBI? Are you freaking kidding me? Don't they have more important stuff to do? Like find Kyron, Zahra, Haleigh, etc?

All of the people involved in this story are crazy a$$ weird and I think there's more to it...both now and 20 years ago. I used to care what it was. Now I just wish they'd all shut up.

I don't mean to pick on you, AM, but I'm not sure we can know how this call appeared to Ms. Hill. I'm sure she's gotten all sorts of calls over the years, including death threats, and may be in the habit of turning all calls on the subject over to security.

Also, it just occurs to me now that we seem to be assuming that Hill knew that the call in fact came from Mrs. Thomas. Do we know that? If they were never close and hadn't spoken in 20 years, Hill may well have assumed this was a crank call and potentially dangerous.

 

[Nova]

I always thought Anita Hill was telling the truth. In fact, I can't believe how SHE was treated during and after the hearings. It never came out that Clarence Thomas was a corporate attorney for Monsanto... a terrible company. If you haven't watched "Food, Inc." watch it and learn about Monsanto and Clarence Thomas.

Worse--to me--is that he clearly lied about things such as claiming he had no opinion on Roe v. Wade.

 

[angelmom]

I don't mean to pick on you, AM, but I'm not sure we can know how this call appeared to Ms. Hill. I'm sure she's gotten all sorts of calls over the years, including death threats, and may be in the habit of turning all calls on the subject over to security.

Also, it just occurs to me now that we seem to be assuming that Hill knew that the call in fact came from Mrs. Thomas. Do we know that? If they were never close and hadn't spoken in 20 years, Hill may well have assumed this was a crank call and potentially dangerous.

Did you listen to the message?

 

[Nova]

Did you listen to the message?

No. Is there something in the recording that proves the speaker is Ms. Thomas? I'm not sure how one does that over the phone.