Althouse: "Paradoxically, these bitter attacks are still more evidence that Clarence Thomas is now leading the national debate on race."

February 22, 2015

"Paradoxically, these bitter attacks are still more evidence that Clarence Thomas is now leading the national debate on race."

Writes Juan Williams in the Wall Street Journal.

30 comments:

Michael K said...: Juan makes one his good statements here. Mostly, he is consumed with racial solidarity.; 2/22/15, 5:46 PM
David said...: "Nevada Sen. Harry Reid once dismissed him as one of “five white men” on the high court."

In any contest, on any subject, Clarence Thomas clobbers Harry Reid.; 2/22/15, 5:49 PM
The Godfather said...: I remember Thomas's confirmation hearings vividly. After Anita Hill's testimony, when Thomas returned to the stand, I didn't hear him live because I was working. As I was about to leave the office, one of my colleagues said, I heard him testify about the Hill allegations, and he didn't deny them. I thought, Oh Sh*t!

Of course, that's not the way it was, and the country is fortunate that we've had Justice Thomas on the bench.; 2/22/15, 5:58 PM
dreams said...: I have a low opinion of Juan Williams, he thinks the Racists Obama and Eric Holder are good guys.; 2/22/15, 6:02 PM
dreams said...: People forget that most people believed Clarence Thomas at the time but the liberal media continued to spin and define until years later most people came to believe Anita Hill and the liberal media's version of the Thomas/Hill history. A thousand mile walk begins with the first step.; 2/22/15, 6:09 PM
Kirby Olson said...: His autobiography is quite readable. I recommend it.

There are many intelligent blacks who question the supremacy of the Obamatons. Allan West, Ben Carson, Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Mia Love, have been saying similar things. There is a growing consensus among many Republican blacks that the left has steered them back into a pen in order to hogtie them with discriminatory benefits.

I like Thomas' viewpoint that this means that underneath that there is the sense that blacks cannot succeed without the endless pity party of the communists.

Ben Carson and Mia Love and Thomas Sowell show that that is not true. Maybe there would be no OBama without Affirmative Action, but there might have been someone else with an actual brain.; 2/22/15, 6:34 PM
Anonymous said...: We need more like Clarence Thomas on the bench.; 2/22/15, 6:34 PM
Kirby Olson said...: We have now another two decades of leftist lies behind us - Chrystal Magnum at Duke, and Tawana Brawley, and the lies surrounding Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, to see the leftist spin doctors at work.

The end justifies the means, as the communists would say.

Nothing Anita Hill said could be proven. She was just another shill picking up a check.

Meanwhile, the far more documented cases against Bill Clinton were never picked up by the media. Their silencing was aided by his partner's enabling the destruction of other women so she could climb on them to the top.; 2/22/15, 6:38 PM
dreams said...: I liked his autobiography too, a good read.; 2/22/15, 6:38 PM
dreams said...: "There are many intelligent blacks who question the supremacy of the Obamatons. Allan West, Ben Carson, Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Mia Love, have been saying similar things. There is a growing consensus among many Republican blacks that the left has steered them back into a pen in order to hogtie them with discriminatory benefits."

Black people were making great strides until LBJ's war on poverty, that is when their progress stopped.; 2/22/15, 6:43 PM
traditionalguy said...: That's two educated black men from the State of Georgia who made us proud: King the Reformed Christian and Thomas the Catholic Christian. Atheists need not apply.; 2/22/15, 6:59 PM
n.n said...: Thomas proved his mettle. Not in an ethnic race, but as a constitutional jurist.; 2/22/15, 7:01 PM
Michael K said...: I asked my children to read Thomas's book.

Another good source is Please Stop Helping Us. by Jason Riley.

I knew people like that in my childhood. There still are some. I was at my grandson's Little League game yesterday and saw one of the mothers who is black and her son was playing. There are two or three black families on my street which runs only a long block. They know what they want for their kids and I have no idea of their politics and wouldn't think to ask them but they are living what they believe.

Twenty five years ago I knew a black anesthesiologist who complained that Orange County was "too white." He was a jerk and, sure enough, he left his wife and kids to move to Laguna and start living the gay lifestyle.

I was not surprised. He was all about himself.; 2/22/15, 7:02 PM
n.n said...: traditionalguy:

Paradoxically, Judeo-Christian philosophy did more to separate Church and state, than any other philosophy before or since, secular or otherwise. It established a partition between faith, philosophy, and science, while retaining its religion or moral and secular laws to guide social development.; 2/22/15, 7:07 PM
Anonymous said...: What amazes me is that Jeffrey Toobin is still pissed that Clarence Thomas doesn't ask questions during oral arguments. Toobin apparently feels it's because Thomas doesn't have enough brains to ask a good question. Either that or Toobin wants to use anything Thomas says against him. When Thomas asks no questions, Toobin can't attack him for asking dumb ones.

I recently watched a talk that Thomas gave at Wake Forest. He said he doesn't ask questions because by the time a case gets to oral arguments the issue is already decided. It's also why he said he's against broadcasting oral arguments. Just showing that only would give the impression to the public that the whole issue depends on what happens there, which is hardly the case.; 2/22/15, 7:08 PM
Sebastian said...: Maybe he is "leading" the debate in some metaphorical sense.

But this leader doesn't have many followers.

Unfortunately.; 2/22/15, 7:27 PM
Mark Caplan said...: Justice Thomas wants to end what he calls "racial paternalism" because he believes blacks on average are not intellectually or behaviorally inferior to whites or Asians.; 2/22/15, 7:57 PM
Birches said...: Great article. Juan Williams might be a Democrat, but both of his sons are now Republicans. I find that very interesting.; 2/22/15, 8:42 PM
dreams said...: "Great article. Juan Williams might be a Democrat, but both of his sons are now Republicans. I find that very interesting."

Maybe he is a good dad, he does seem like a good person but I don't like his politics.; 2/22/15, 8:47 PM
Simon said...: David said...
"In any contest, on any subject, Clarence Thomas clobbers Harry Reid."

In any contest, on any subject, the average doorpost clobbers Harry Reid.; 2/22/15, 9:46 PM
Simon said...: Paul Ciotti said...
"I recently watched a talk that Thomas gave at Wake Forest. He said he doesn't ask questions because by the time a case gets to oral arguments the issue is already decided."

I think that's an overstatement, but it's true in a significant number of cases. Jeff Toobin knows perfectly well how Court works; he knows perfectly well how much the justices have already got in front of them by the time they walk into argument in any given case. But he also knows that most of his readers don'tknow that.; 2/22/15, 9:56 PM
Bricap said...: I was lucky enough to observe a few cases at the Supreme Court after my wife was part of a group who got sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts to practice before the Court.

Justice Thomas, "the most qualified judge in the land" as he was once called by GHW Bush despite the ABA opinions to the contrary (yes, I know they aren't always correct in their assessments, but how often is it correct to say "most qualified?"), seemed barely interested at times, leaning way back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as the other eight justices peppered the lawyers with nonstop questioning. I have to say that it was most fascinating.

I realize that the briefs and the amicus briefs often play the biggest part, of course, but even so, it still is odd that he would go years without asking a single question. Do Justices ask questions for show, or do they have genuine unresolved concerns when they ask them?; 2/22/15, 11:38 PM
eddie willers said...: Hang around, Bricap.

Maybe you'll learn something.; 2/22/15, 11:43 PM
eddie willers said...: I remember Thomas's confirmation hearings vividly

I, too, remember that High-Tech lynching.

Before then I had never voted anything but Democrat.

After that, I never again voted Democrat.; 2/22/15, 11:47 PM
Bricap said...: Thanks, Eddie. Maybe you'll learn something, too. I'm sure I will, as it seems like a lot of bright people on here. You know, free exchange of ideas and all that.; 2/22/15, 11:54 PM
furious_a said...: NOR fired Juan Williams for just this sort of doubleplus ungoodthink.; 2/23/15, 12:55 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Good column - that's the "old" Juan Williams!; 2/23/15, 7:31 AM
Simon said...: Bricap said...
"I realize that the briefs and the amicus briefs often play the biggest part, of course, but even so, it still is odd that he would go years without asking a single question. Do Justices ask questions for show, or do they have genuine unresolved concerns when they ask them?"

That's a much better and more durable critique of Thomas than Toobin's. Still, it's worth pointing out that the "hot bench" is an aberration, an era that began only with Justice Scalia's arrival in the 1980s. Before that, silence was the default posture for a justice at argument. Listen to some of those recorded arguments from before then for context.; 2/23/15, 9:58 AM
Birches said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/23/15, 2:21 PM
Bricap said...: Thanks for that insight, Simon. I did run across this at SCOTUSBlog. Roberts talks about it being a way for justices to communicate their thoughts because they do not discuss the case beforehand.

Seems like it's more than that, though. In the three that I watched, there was one case that was so bizarre and every justice seemed puzzled as to how to proceed (and they punted it, as my wife predicted). One of my wife's colleagues had written an amicus brief that supported neither side, even.

There was another one that was decided on typical 5-3 lines (Kagan recused), and Alito asked most of the questions, with Breyer asking a few pointedly contrasting questions, also. That one did seem like there was some indirect argument between the two justices, fitting the suggestion from Roberts.; 2/23/15, 5:04 PM