The Best Paragraphs In The Sunday Newspaper

This week there was no other article that came close to being placed as the best Sunday paragraphs.  Once again this columnist nailed it right on the head.  Pity that Poppy Bush has no writer in his corner with the same knack for hitting one over the back benches.

Your Yale law degree isn’t worth 15 cents when everyone assumes you got special treatment because of the color of your skin, when, really, it was the witless Wonder Bread elites who got special treatment because of the color of their daddy’s money.

I still have a 15-cent sticker on the frame of my law degree because it’s tainted. I keep it in the basement.

That’s why I refuse, as a justice, to give a helping hand to blacks. I don’t want them to suffer from the advantages I had. Few of them will be able to climb to my heights, of course, but if they do, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that they made it on their own, as individuals.

Because Poppy Bush put me on the Supreme Court after I’d been a judge for only a year, I’ll always wonder if I got the job just because of my race. I want to spare other blacks that kind of worry. That’s why I pulled the ladder up after myself — so that my brothers and sisters would have the peace of mind that comes with self-reliance.

I used to have grave reservations about working at white institutions, subject to the whims of white superiors. But when Poppy’s whim was to crown his son — one of those privileged Yale legacy types I always resented — I had to repay The Man for putting me on the court even though I was neither qualified nor honest.

So I voted to shut down the vote-counting in Florida by A. — oh, I’ll just say it: Al — because if he’d kept going he might have won. I helped swing the court in case No. 00-949, Bush v. Gore, to narrowly achieve the Bush restoration.

I know it wasn’t what my hero Atticus Finch would have done. But having the power to carjack the presidency and control the fate of the country did give me that old X-rated tingle.

Technorati Tags: ClarenceThomas, MaureenDowd, NewYorkTimes

Thoughts On Justice Clarence Thomas

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did himself a world of good last night by giving up his petulant attitude towards the press, and allowing for a wide ranging interview with the CBS News show “60 Minutes”.  While the show airbrushed some of the rougher and more unseemly aspects of his story in relation to Anita Hill, and his less than stellar performance as a jurist, the one time self-described ‘radical’ came off as some one that might be fun to converse with at a cocktail party.

If Thomas could now break the chains that hold him to Justice Scalia, there might be a second book and another interview to be had on the Sunday night program.  And the nation would be better served if Justice Thomas were to stop carrying water for the conservatives, and view the law in relation to all of America.

By being so reluctant for so long to engage in the PR battle to remove the stains of his past, or at least republish them with his own spin, was a huge mistake for Thomas.  As the Justice demonstrated last night at length, he is able to hold his own and speak convincingly about his life and points of view.  His long held views that the press were the enemy was proved wrong last night.  CBS gave him ample time to tell his story, while mixing in enough feel good moments to make it just syrupy enough to enjoy, but not so much that you needed the bucket. 

The problem with Thomas is that he is not his own man on the bench.  He is linked so tightly with Justice Scalia as they contort the law to fit a conservative manifesto that there is no room for Thomas to grow mentally.  As Thomas showed last night there is some substance within the man.  But by being Scalia’s black half on the bench 91% of the time during the last court session, there is little Thomas can do for personal growth.  Until he breaks free of Scalia’s grip, Thomas is still owned by someone, and not yet truly a free man.

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