He’s not deluded. He’s a lying political operative.
The New York Times reports on an on-the-record talk with Clarence Thomas this week. It’s all very interesting. But I’ll just excerpt this part. Drink it in:
Justice Thomas took part in an after-dinner conversation with one of his former law clerks, John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and answered questions from the audience. Professor Yoo was one of the architects of the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Justice Thomas joked that his former clerk would face a confirmation battle were he nominated to the federal bench.
Yes, it’s that John Yoo. The architect of America’s torture regime during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Justice Thomas said the left had adopted tactics that conservatives would not employ.
“You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way,” he said. “We didn’t throw temper tantrums. It is incumbent on us to always act appropriately, and not to repay tit for tat.”
His wife was texting the Supreme Court during a violent insurrection at the US Capitol. Anti-abortion zealots have been shooting doctors, harassing women and bombing clinics for the past 40 years.
He added that conservatives had “never trashed a Supreme Court nominee.” He acknowledged that Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nominee, “did not get a hearing, but he was not trashed.”
“You will not see the utter destruction of a single nominee,” Justice Thomas said. “You will also not see people going to other people’s houses, attacking them at dinner at a restaurant, throwing things on them.”
He said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh had been subjected to particular abuse, but he referred only glancingly to his own brutal confirmation hearings, during which he angrily denied accusations of sexual harassment.
He added that conservatives had “never trashed a Supreme Court nominee.” He acknowledged that Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nominee, “did not get a hearing, but he was not trashed.”
“You will not see the utter destruction of a single nominee,” Justice Thomas said. “You will also not see people going to other people’s houses, attacking them at dinner at a restaurant, throwing things on them.”
He said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh had been subjected to particular abuse, but he referred only glancingly to his own brutal confirmation hearings, during which he angrily denied accusations of sexual harassment.
They just attacked Ketanji Brown Jackson as a pedophile enabler. Before her, they made it clear that they believed Sonia Sotomayor was too stupid to be on court. But the very, very sad fact is that despite winning 7 of the last 8 popular presidential votes, Democrats have only been able to name 3 Justices to the Court while the Republicans have named 5, with the right wing extremist Thomas being the 6th.
He also has the gall to make this erroneous and snotty remark:
Taking sides on a contested point, Justice Thomas said the Senate Republicans who blockaded Mr. Garland’s nomination were following a rule that President Biden, then a senator, had proposed, “which is you get no hearing in the last year of an administration.”
Biden may have said that, but they never did it. And Thomas himself was confirmed just one year and two weeks before the end of the Bush Sr administration.
He’s quite the arrogant wingnut:
“I always say that when someone uses stare decisis that means they’re out of arguments,” he said. “Now they’re just waving the white flag. And I just keep going.”
So all that talk about precedent is just bullshit. But then, we knew that didn’t we? He’s just letting it all hang out. It’s clarifying.
He’s only 73. I thought he was older. Unfortunately, this radical right winger is likely to be around for at least another decade.