Anita Hill's still standing 22 years later. I watched every minute of the proceedings, did you?

[mimi85]

By Robin Abcarian
March 16, 2014, 9:00 p.m.

The new documentary about Anita Hill opens with a close-up of a telephone and a bizarre voice mail message:

"Good morning, Anita Hill. It's Ginni Thomas, and I just wanted to reach across the air waves, 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. So give it some thought, I certainly pray about this and hope one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. OK! Have a good day."

That obnoxious request, left on Hill's office voice mail in October 2010, is the last we hear from Ginni Thomas in "Anita: Speaking Truth to Power" by Oscar-winning director Freida Mock. The film, which opened in Los Angeles and New York on Friday, is a perfect jumping-off point for Hill's story, as it so perfectly distills the right-wing's fervent desire to rewrite the history of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings.

It's been more than 22 years since the Senate Judiciary Committee heard a soft-spoken 35-year-old University of Oklahoma law professor recount graphic instances of sexual harassment at the hands of her former boss. Despite Ginni Thomas' prayers, Hill has never backed down from her allegations. Why would she, since she was so obviously telling the truth?

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-abcarian-anita-hill-20140317,0,5507302.story#axzz2wEKS48Bk

[Mnemosyne]

1. I wanted to smack Specter every time he opened his mouth. I remember. nt

[Berlum]

2. "IOKIYAR. Smirk. Sneer." - Clarence T. (R)

"Haven't you smelly proles got it figured out yet? We Repubbies just don't do the 'personal responsibility thang.' Smirk. Sneer." - Clarence T. (R)

[UTUSN]

3. R#5 & K for, yip watched every minute. & she's still standing & he's still SILENT since. n/t

[Dirty Socialist]

4. It's A Case of He Said/She Said

After experiencing Thomas' career on the bench, I believe Anita Hill.

[Le Taz Hot]

12. Actually, it's a case of he said,

she said, she said, she said, she said and she said. The other 4 witnesses were not allowed to testify about being repeatedly sexually harassed by Thomas because JOE BIDEN MADE A DEAL WITH THE REPUBLICANS to not allow them to testify.

We ALL need to remember this little episode if/when Joe the Capitulator decides to run in the primaries (he won't).

[Contrary1]

25. Exactly...

and the way he himself treated MS. Hill was more than enough to keep me from joining his fan club.

[G_j]

28. +100

[geek tragedy]

31. Also why Harry Reid kicked him out of the negotiations over the shutdown nt

[BrotherIvan]

33. ^^This!^^

Behavior like this has been forgotten because he's "our guy."

[TeeYiYi]

13. I never doubted her...

Having personally experienced sexual harassment on the job, it's easy to recognize.

TYY

[SheilaT]

14. Same here.

And when she detailed the crap he pulled, I recognized it because I've known more than one man to behave that way in the workplace.

[bemildred]

5. I will never forget that. nt

[Paladin]

6. I watched the hearings. Anita Hill was undeniably believable.

Clarence Thomas, on the other hand, was absolutely frantic in his denials. And yet there he sits, silent, on the Supreme Court, while his right-wing crazo wife continues to spew constant untruths. If a liberal jurist's spouse were engaged in the same sort of political activity as Ginni Thomas, the entire right wing noise machine would be in hysterics over it. I'm glad this new film is coming out; it's going to refresh a lot of memories as to the sort of ugly behavior that Ms. Hill was subjected to, and the courageous, principled way in which she dealt with adversity.

[DURHAM D]

7. I watched (and recorded) every minute.

As a result I can never forgive Joe Biden for allowing a public stoning of a good woman.

jftr - In graduate school I did a paper on the effectiveness of the EEOC and changes/lack of progress as a result of the commission. Fortunately I was able to speak to law professors (women) from all over the country who taught in this area. To a person they volunteered that the head of the EEOC was a serial sexual harasser which was obviously a problem. This was 5-6 years before he was nominated to the Court. So everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, knew about him.

Later I became acquainted with Anita and told her about my paper and she confirmed the fact that Clarence was a serial sexual harasser. It was another 4 years before she testified in that Senate hearing.

[Sheldon Cooper]

9. I've never been able to fully embrace Biden, and this is why.

His behavior toward Ms. Hill during the hearings was unconscionable.

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. I knew Anita Hill before the Clarence Thomas hearings

Kmew her from my university days.

Never doubted her credibility or her testimony.

Also had occasion to encounter some of her asshat former colleagues who offered contrary testimony.

Trivia buffs here might be interested to know that Anita Hill was one of Michele Bachmanm's law professors. Way back before Anita taught at OU. Her first teching gig was at the OW Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University. OW Coburn was Senator Tom Coburns father. In the mid-80s Oral Roberts gave the law school to Pat Robertson and it moved cross country and became Regent University School of Law. Small world. Context explains a lot of the hate directed toward her.

[mimi85]

26. Wow, I didn't know about Bachmann

and the others. It sure does explain a lot. I was glad to read that her life turned out well in spite of all those asshats. Ginny Thomas is a piece of crap. What nerve!

[Coyote_Bandit]

35. Other connections

Anothers of Michele Bachmann's law chool professors was a guy named John Eidsmoe. He's a rather prolific author an as a legal advisor to Alabama Judge Roy Moore.

Other notable classmates of Michelle Bachmann include Roberta Roberts Potts (Oral's daughter), Wayne House (Christian author) Chris Klicka (homeschool legal advocate) and Faye Lyon.(daughter of pastor and former Illinois Senatorial candidate Don Lyon from Rockford).

More notable connections I suspect but it has been decades since I have had any contact with these asshats. And, yes, Michelle had the crazy eyes way back when. Same hairstyle too.

[Paladin]

10. Keep in mind that Ms. Hill voluntarily took a lie detector test and passed it.

Clarence Thomas never did the same.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. Yes I did

and I will never forget Joe Biden's role in getting Clarence Thomas shoved onto the Supreme Court. The Republicans did what the Republicans do, but we should have been able to count on the Democrats to put up a fight. And some did. And some folded and one of those was Joe Biden who came to an agreement with the Republicans to NOT ALLOW THE OTHER 4 WOMEN WHO WERE READY, WILLING AND EAGER TO TESTIFY against Thomas. Thanks, Joe, you sniveling Third-Way capitulator!

[KoKo]

24. Yes...watched unti 2:00 a.m. or later when he didn't let the witness who

could have confirmed Anita Hills story testify and he called an end to it...and we got Clarence. Never trusted him after that. That he let that hearing go into wee hours of morning when he could have done different scheduling for the witnesses. It seemed a sneaky thing to do. I'm sure if asked he'd claim "scheduling problem" but I still wouldn't believe it. Never got over it..

[kath]

15. Thanks, Joe Biden, for giving us C. Thomas on the Supreme Court.

A shining light of jurispridence.
Screw you, Joe.

[Berlum]

20. "Um, um, um, aaaah, um" - Joey B.

[G_j]

29. He wasn't much help in the Iran Contra hearings

either, offering a bunch of basically worthless softball questions.

[Deuce]

16. "high-tech lynching"...

That really irritated me and i wish i could say more about it.

[calimary]

21. Welcome to DU, Deuce!

Glad you're here. That message from ginni thomas - ARRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!

SCREW HER!!!! As her pal cheney would say - "go fuck yourself." How 'bout asking what YOUR HUSBAND did to Anita Hill, honey?

I watched the whole thing. Just kept getting angrier and angrier! I believed Anita Hill. I STILL believe Anita Hill. I'll believe clarence thomas the minute I start voting republi-CON. Which will be NEVER!!!!

[Deuce]

27. Thanks...

[kelliekat44]

17. Yes, I watched. Shamful display by our Congress...and the nation has suffered for it. nt

[reddread]

18. considering all the prior, contemporary and subsequent facts of the case

I am justified in hating Joe Biden. I dont hate much or many, if any, but he is the most reviled person on my planet.
Thomas was no small indignity to the civil rights movement and the presence of trust and fidelity upon the Supreme Court.
Not only was the sequestering of additional corroborating witnesses inexcusable during such a serious contentious "hearing",
The abominable ascension was Biden's doing. Not an oversight. His doing, through and through.
Much less significantly, the serious obsession Thomas had with pornography is reflected in the admission of local porn shop
owner's description of Thomas as their #1 customer.
This goes directly to the allegations regarding putrid remarks duplicating tasteless moments from porn films he had watched.
None of which seems that important, except for the outrageous treatment accorded Anita Hill.
We need to be aware of what happened, and who did the deed.
All that followed, hinged on that major betrayal.
This was the most significant moment in modern American history, and those who choose to ignore it, disassociate themselves from the
most crucial of political clues.
Let us all learn the lesson we have paid so much for.

[zentrum]

19. Watched every minute.

Will never forget or forgive Arlen Spector using his prestige and "reasonableness" to bring her down and be a beard for Thomas' credibility.

The Supreme Court, like most of our system, is currently broken IMO.

[Nye Bevan]

22. Absolutely. "Who put that pubic hair on my coke can"?

"High-tech lynching of an uppity black".

Joe Biden taking Thomas's side big time, while wagging his finger.

Has it really been 22 years?

[LittleGirl]

23. Didn't watch any of it

22 yrs ago I was deeply ignorant of politics and did not vote, did not pay attention and whenever politics came on the news, I changed the channel or waited until the next segment, like the weather which affected my life. Long after Nixon resigned in disgrace and got pardoned and Reagan raised my income tax (as a waitress with 0 paychecks), I hated politics. I didn't care either. Now I'm interested but one thing I do remember about Anita Hill, I believed her. Always because you know, I used to be a waitress. I dealt with sexism every time I waited on a table or had to deal with a chef, cook or dick manager who made sexist and crude jokes about women hourly. I had to stop getting mad and live my life. I admire the woman.

[Hekate]

30. Yes, and I still believe Anita Hill. I wanted to slap those Senators silly...

All those men called her "Miss Hill" like they were doing her a favor. Not one of them referred to her by her professional titles, Professor or Doctor Hill.

But it was "Judge Thomas" this and "Judge Thomas" that like it was a foregone conclusion, which it was. That little toad was meant to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall, and he's still not fit to carry Justice Marshall's papers to the file cabinet.

[JHB]

32. Remember WHY Thomas was selected...

...NOT because he was the most qualified jurist. He wasn't.
...NOT because he was the most qualified black jurist. He wasn't.
...NOT because he was the most qualified black conservative jurist. He wasn't.

He was the most qualified black conservative with reliable but obfuscatable views on abortion & other subjects, and was young enough that he'd stay on the court for decades.

The Democratic senators were initially ready to give him a pass, since 1) they didn't look forward to another SC nomination battle, and 2) initially the black community was receptive to Thomas -- not enthusiastic, but not inclined to oppose -- and a fight against him wouldn't be well received.

At the time I thought Thomas should have been voted down just because of his lackluster record and ignoring conflict of interest (Thomas failed to recuse himself in a case involving the Ralston Purina company, where his political mentor Sen. John Danforth owned millions in stock and had brothers on the board of directors. Thomas' decision in favor of Purina directly benefitted his pals).

Black opinion didn't shift until later in the process, after Thurgood Marshall made his "a black snake is still a snake" comment. The senators were finally forced to take a harder line when the harassment charges leaked out, and giving Thomas a pass would piss off another Democratic constituency: women fighting workplace harassment.

But all that happened too late: by that point conservatives were ginned up in support and the rest of the establishment didn't want another highly-visible fight, so the Thomas hearings were kept to a he-said-she-said with Anita Hill (Angela Wright was shunted off to the side), giving the senators their excuse to just put it behind them.

So here we are, a quarter-century later, and he's still a lackluster jurist who ignores conflicts of interest, and is a reliable conservative operative in the courts.

[PCIntern]

34. I have VHS tapes of the entire hearing...

my kid was just born and I was home, set the VCR because I knew that history was going to be made, and ran those tapes, 6 hours each, until the last witness. It was so obvious what was occurring and we certainly have been validated in our disdain for the man, have we not?

[Cha]

36. K^R thanks mimi

[Enthusiast]

37. Anita Hill seemed perfectly credible to me.

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[reddread]

38. cant tell the players without a current scorecard

this lame wikipedia description hardly describes the mendacious attack upon Anita Hill by a WELL PAID hired hitman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock