Justice or not, Clarence Thomas is an Ass

It’s hard to miss all of the hullabaloo over Justice Clarence Thomas’ new memoir, My Grandfather's Son. It’s like nails on a chalkboard if you ask me.

I am appalled that a man that will go down in history as a conservative Supreme Court Justice (how exciting!), is such a whiny baby. I recently had a discussion with my girlfriend, who is an attorney, about it and she implied he had every right to be upset. Whenever I attack the Court, all my lawyer friends get up in arms about my lack of respect. I’m all for respecting the Court and those that sit on the bench, but I will still call an ass an ass, and Justice Thomas is an ass.

Thankfully, an Op/Ed contributor in the Washington Post agreed with me this morning. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Since her words perfectly sum up my thoughts of the man who sits on the high Court, I figure it’s easier just to paste them here:

Here is some of the evidence Thomas omits:
First, Hill did not wait 10 years to complain about his behavior. Susan Hoerchner, a Yale Law School classmate of Hill's, described how she complained of sexual harassment while working for Thomas, saying the EEOC chairman had "repeatedly asked her out . . . but wouldn't seem to take 'no' for an answer." Ellen Wells, a friend, said Hill had come to her, "deeply troubled and very depressed," with complaints about Thomas's inappropriate behavior. John Carr, a lawyer, said that Hill, in tears, confided that "her boss was making sexual advances toward her." American University law professor Joel Paul said Hill had told him in 1987 that she had left the EEOC because she had been sexually harassed by her supervisor.

Second, Hill was not the only former subordinate of Thomas's with complaints. Former EEOC employee Angela Wright described how Thomas pressured her to date him, showed up uninvited at her apartment and asked her breast size. "Clarence Thomas would say to me, 'You know you need to be dating me. . . . You're one of the finest women I have on my staff," Wright told Senate investigators.

Wright's account was corroborated by Rose Jourdain, a former speechwriter who, like Wright, was dismissed by Thomas. Jourdain said Wright had complained that she was "increasingly nervous about being in his presence alone" because of comments "concerning her figure, her body, her breasts, her legs."
Another former Thomas employee, Sukari Hardnett, said of his office, "If you were young, black, female and reasonably attractive, you knew full well you were being inspected and auditioned as a female."

Third, as Merida and Fletcher found, some of the behavior Hill complained about resonated with episodes from Thomas's past. Hill described an episode in which Thomas, drinking a soda, asked, "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?" James Millet, a college classmate of Thomas's, recalled "an almost identical episode" at Holy Cross. "Pubic hair was one of the things he talked about," another classmate said. Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, in "Strange Justice," found two others who recalled a pubic hair-Coke can comment at the EEOC.

It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy to walk down memory lane with the Justice. Aw…memories…how many women did this man harass anyway?! Mr. Thomas, I hope you enjoy your book royalties as much as you enjoy stripping away women’s rights, civil rights and civil liberties.