Anita Hill's message for Virginia Thomas | Michael Tomasky

Ginni's bizarre voicemail call for an apology only highlights the credibility of Hill's testimony against Clarence Thomas

I was surprised to read that Ginni Thomas – the "nonpolitical" wife of "Silent" Clarence Thomas, the supreme court justice who, in 19 years, has still asked very few questions from the high bench – made her bizarre phone call to Anita Hill at 7:30 last Saturday morning.

That's usually the sort of call one makes after knocking back a few drinks. Thomas may be a teetotaller for all I know. Or she may have been a nursing a hangover. Yes – she's clearly been nursing one for 19 years, ever since (by her interpretation) her husband was the "victim" of a "high-tech lynching" at the senate judiciary committee.

The facts, for that dwindling number who care about them, continue to suggest otherwise. True, there is no proof that Thomas lied on the stand about his reported penchant for pornography or his alleged sexual harassment of Hill and other women in his employ at the time. But in their book Strange Justice, Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, then with the Wall Street Journal, found, let us say, lots of spent ammunition lying on the floor. They concluded that the "preponderance" of evidence suggested that Hill was telling the truth.

Many people forget now that the Democrats had a second woman ready to testify, but who did not end up appearing before the committee. She was ready to go but was not called. Angela Wright, who also worked for Thomas, told NPR in 2007 that Thomas had "perjured his way onto the court" and, by the bye, had this to say:

I always knew him to be a mean-spirited, nasty, fairly unstable person. It was enlightening to read his account of his childhood, because that did put it in perspective. Actually, my heart went out to the young child Clarence once I understood he was a child whose father was absent, whose mother sent them away, who was raised by an unemotional grandfather. I finally understood where all his anger and mean-spiritedness came from. I knew it was there. And also, his self-loathing and his hatred for anything black or civil rights-oriented or affirmative action.

Wright also said Thomas had made offensive sexual comments in her presence and pressured her to date him.

Yet, 19 years later, here comes Ginni Thomas to stand by her man.

Clarence ThomasUS midterm elections 2010Anita HillUS supreme courtUnited StatesUS CongressMichael Tomasky
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