Nearly 20 years after Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Justice Thomas’s wife has called Ms. Hill, seeking an apology.
In a voice mail message left at 7:31 a.m. on Oct. 9, a Saturday, Virginia Thomas asked her husband’s former aide-turned-adversary to make amends. Ms. Hill played the recording, from her voice mail at Brandeis University, for The New York Times.
“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas,” it said. “I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”
Ms. Thomas went on: “So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.”
And that's not even the most astonishing thing. This is:
In a statement conveyed through a publicist, Ms. Thomas confirmed leaving the message, which she portrayed as a peacemaking gesture. She did not explain its timing.
“I did place a call to Ms. Hill at her office extending an olive branch to her after all these years, in hopes that we could ultimately get past what happened so long ago,” she said. “That offer still stands. I would be very happy to meet and talk with her if she would be willing to do the same. Certainly no offense was ever intended.”
No offense...? "Hello bitch liar. Jesus says forgive, so you're free to grovel to me and my man about being a total bitch liar. Hugs!"
Ms. Thomas has, to use the technical jargon, lost her shit. Not to play psychologist on the Internets or anything, but this is the Jerry Springer-class behavior of someone who's way up a river in Egypt, paddleless, sensing the crocodiles circling in.
Thoughtful Conservatives, naturally, are blaming Anita Hill for this "silliness." Because trying desperately to muddy up the distinction between "being an asshole" and "being thoughtful" is the essence of "being an American Conservative Thinker."
BLOG-RELATED UPDATE. Posters and commenters at WF have complete freedom of expression, though I will ban or fuck with wingnut posters if it amuses me. That's pretty much the entirety of the posting policy here. That said, I personally do think "whore" as a word is sexistly freighted. For a lot of reasons. Besides, "whatever gives soullite conniptions" usually works out pretty well as something to shoot for.
HILARITY UPDATE. Don't miss this: