Gag me with a chain-saw!

[lastlib]

I just watched C-Span's broadcast of "Justice" Clarence Thomas' interview at the Federalist Society.....

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Textu

That man has to be the most useless fuck ever to hold a seat on the federal bench.

[okaawhatever]

1. Both Thomas and his BFF Scalia are members. Ditto Chief Justice Roberts. If you remember during

Roberts confirmation he was asked if he was a member, and he said he didn't recall. He claimed to have gone to a meeting or two and knew some folks involved, etc... After his confirmation proof came out that he was actually membership director or some such. All three of them should be impeached.
Also remember Karl Rove used the offices of The Federalist Society in Washiongton DC to hold meetings and make phone calls. He was concerned about people at the White House finding out what he was doing. How sickening is that? He is the WH Chief of Staff and holding meetings at a fringe anti-American group HQ?
The Federalist Society and John Birch Society are different sides of the same f-ed up coin.

[JHB]

6. The Federalist Society was set up as a vehicle for putting conservative judges in federal courts

The American Bar Association rated judges for various offices, but Movement Conservatives derided it as having a liberal bias. (and as a reminder: to Movement Conservatives, "liberal" is effectively defined as "not one of us". Failure to promote their notion of conservatism automatically got labeled as "liberal".)

You know Grover Norquists' anti-tax pledge? The Federalist Society functions similarly; there's no pledge, but it constitutes as conservative stamp of approval. ("one of us&quot . By getting Republican presidents to only nominate Federalist Society-approved judges -- and obstructing judicial appointments under Clinton and Obama, the FS is their vehicle for packing the courts with conservatives.

[gopiscrap]

2. I totally agree!

[Archae]

3. This is why I say Anita Hill was a GOP plant.

Thomas was looking like a prize idiot, especially on past SC decisions.

So up pops Anita Hill, and Thomas gets to put on the "Everybody's picking on me!" act, and his actual qualifications get put on the back burner, if they are looked at, at all.

We see now just how incompetent a justice he is, and how corrupt he and his wife are.

[RobertEarl]

4. Golly, Archae

You sound like a CTer.

Hey, it's ok to believe the damned criminals conspire to destroy the US. You're in good company with that belief. Certainly, as you say, Thomas was foisted on us and he is corrupt. Sound CT stuff there.

Just be careful, they may start calling you a CT nut. (Somehow, they get away with doing so.)

[Archae]

7. It is a conspiracy theory, I know that.

Heck. Thomas' entire nomination could be thought of as a BFEE conspiracy.

Thurgood Marshall was retiring, and so Bush elder wanted to appoint a conservative to replace him.

Problem was, all the candidates Bush wanted were old white guys, and Bush was still smarting from the racism his campaign had used, including Willie Horton.

He finds a black conservative.
But that black conservative was incompetent and a flaming hypocrite.

Bush nominated the idiot anyway.

Nothing new with GOP Presidents and the Supreme Court.
Remember Nixon, Haynesworth and Carswell?

[JHB]

10. To use the phrase I used back then...

Thomas is not the most qualified person for the job.
Neither is he the most qualified conservative jurist, nor the most qualified black jurist.

What he is, is the most qualified black conservative with reliable but obfuscateable views on abortion and other conservative agenda points.

And he's young enough that he'll be on the court for decades.

I contend that I was right on all counts.

[JHB]

5. Were you around and paying attention back then?

Thomas was getting a free pass because the Democratic leadership didn't want a repeat of the partisan rancor of the Bork nomination, and certainly not with a black candidate. Initially, Thomas had support from the black community until late in the game, when Thurgood Marshall made his "a black snake is still a snake" comment about Thomas. By then the consensus had already gelled to let him through with little more than perfunctory huffing and puffing.

With Thomas sailing toward a smooth confirmation by default, someone desperately tried to derail it by finding Hill's story and publicizing it among Democratic womens' groups, who would raise a hue and cry over his sexual harassment of Hill and others.

Hill wasn't the only one. Angela Wright had similar stories, but she was sidelined in the Senate hearings.

Thomas got confirmed because because the Democrats who today would describe themselves as "centrist" decided that they weren't going to fight over it. Hill's popping up was an embarrassment to them, so they went through the motions of inquiry but ultimately brushed her under the rug.

[hfojvt]

8. most senators are centrist

The Senate really is not a hotbed of liberalism.

Going through the vote list, the only surprising one is Dixon of Illinois. The other Democrats were from conservative southern states. Two from Georgia, two from Louisiana, one from Oklahoma, one from Nebraska, one from Virginia, and one from South Carolina, one from Arizona.

Baucus voted No, Conrad (ND) voted No. Chafee (Rhode Island Republican) voted yes. Kentucky voted no. Kerrey from Nebraska (very conservative IMO) voted no. The DINO Kohl voted no. Liebermann voted no.

http://www.eclipse.net/~tgardnet/thomasvote.html

[JHB]

9. Quite true, which supports my point that they weren't inclined to make a fight over the nomination.

The claim to which I was responding, that Hill was a GOP plant to make Thomas into a persecuted martyr figure, on the other hand, is supported by no evidence whatsoever.