Here we go again. Those well-read and well-bred Upper East and West siders in New York just can’t help themselves. They likely prescribe to the adage, “If at first, you don’t succeed…” Thus, they are launching a full-court press to impeach U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
This time the allegations come from Alaska attorney Moria Smith. And they take us back almost two decades. In an article headlined “Do you Believe Her Now?” in New York Magazine, Ms. Smith picks up the mantle for Anita Hill and carries it into the 21st century. Indeed, she recounts a situation of “dinner party groping” some 17 years ago with Thomas.
Really? Were all the women in America to come forth and speak about someone touching them at a dinner party, the sound would be deafening. Is this all leftists have remaining in their bag of tricks?
It would be laughable if they weren’t serious. But Ms. Smith has now “come out” and apparently can be silent no more. Her story has been hanging around for a while, but no one paid it any attention because well…you fill in the blank.
But wait – there’s more. Simple groping won’t do the trick, so Ms. Smith has added on “porn in the office” and a discussion of “women’s bodies.” In her article outlining this myriad of accusations against Thomas, author Jill Abramson makes the point:
“But it’s well worth inspecting, in part as a case study, in how women’s voices were silenced at the time by both Republicans and Democrats and as an illustration of what’s changed — and hasn’t — in the past 27 years (or even the last year). After all, it’s difficult to imagine Democrats, not to mention the media, being so tentative about such claims against a nominated justice today.”
But then she goes on to the real reason all this is being hauled out of the trash bin:
“But, most of all, because Thomas, as a crucial vote on the Supreme Court, holds incredible power over women’s rights, workplace, reproductive, and otherwise. His worldview, with its consistent objectification of women, is the one that’s shaping the contours of what’s possible for women in America today, more than that of just about any man alive, save for his fellow justices.”
Then she dredges up the whole Anita Hill affair – again making the case that Thomas can and should be “impeached through a congressional vote” for perjuring himself during the Hill hearing.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase
Indeed, one U.S. Supreme Court Justice was impeached. It happened in 1804 to Justice Samuel Chase. Suffice it to say Chase’s story bears zero resemblance to the Clarence Thomas allegations. His impeachment centered on his lower circuit court work when he was a trial judge. Justice Chase was ultimately acquitted of all charges by the Senate in 1805 but carries the distinction of being the only U.S. Supreme Court Justice to be impeached.
To put Chase and Thomas in the same category is a stretch. But then the extreme left is a master of distortion. They are doggedly determined to get their hands into changing the balance of the High Court. And if they can’t do it fair and square – say with elections – they’ll turn to anything to help them get their way.
Look, we’re not saying that it’s okay to grope women at the dinner table or bring porn to the office party. But at this point, we have no way of knowing what happened to whom and when. It’s a classic “he said; she said,” with no tangible way to determine the truth of the matter.
But it does have that unmistakable aroma of something at which the left has become uniquely adept: a witch hunt.
