Posted by Robert Curran on December 13, 19100 at 08:15:47:
Like so many others following the give and take of events in Florida, comfortable in support of Al Gore and the sense that here in fact was the truly decent man facing a barrage of hardball
Banana Republican tactics, slowly moving towards
a predictably bleak outcome in a stacked Supreme Court...the thought occurred...the single transient fantastic thought...that here was the moment when the silent Clarence Thomas could defy
the certainty of all who knew him, all who had measured him against the ideals implicit in being a Supreme Court Justice and found him lacking...here was the one moment, the one chance to redeem himself and actually act in behalf of the disenfranchised that he has denied to acknowledge...that he might prove that he was not the dependable household servant of the Bushes, or the loyal squire to Justice Scalia...here was his moment to find and act in conscience and side with those honorable justices who will forever
stand tall in comparison to the conservative hypocrites led by Rhenquist and Scalia who felt compelled to squash States Rights with the heavy
Federal hand that they've spent their careers lamenting.
Justice Thomas could have emerged finally as a Man in his own right. He could have found the type of recognition and respect that he could
never enjoy as the token Republican black man
incapable of success and performance on his own merits, always needing the patronizing sponsorship of those like the Bushes who cynically offer their hands to be licked.
But he didn't.