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October 02, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Clarence Thomas And The Blogosphere
Armando Llorens-Sar, who goes by the pseudonym Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft, wonders why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to resurrect his complaints about his Senate confirmation battle in 1991, particularly the allegations of sexual harassment leveled by former employee Anita Hill.
"Anita Hill has been reawakened," Llorens-Sar said, pointing to today's response from Hill via The New York Times.
Llorens-Sar need not wonder any longer why Thomas would "repick this fight" because Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters has the answer: Thomas has conservative bloggers as allies now.
Heritage hosted a dinner in Thomas' honor last night, and Morrissey was among the bloggers and new media luminaries to attend. "Thomas explained that he wished we'd been around in 1991, that we could have made sure that the facts of the case came to light," Morrissey said. "We could have worked around the mainstream media narrative, he told us, and stated several times that he was very impressed with the work we did."
What they weren't able to do in 1991, they are doing now. Morrissey, for instance, quickly jumped to Thomas' defense after seeing Hill's column in the Times.
"After waiting 16 years to tell his side of the story, Hill accuses Thomas of throwing unsubstantiated allegations at her," Morrissey said. "... I recall that it was Hill who went to the Judiciary Committee with a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears in 1991."
Thomas also is the subject of glowings posts from other bloggers who were at the Heritage shindig: La Shawn Barber; Robert Bluey and Rebecca Hagelin of Heritage; Erick Erickson of RedState; James Joyner of Outside The Beltway; Richard Miniter of Pajamas Media; Paul Mirengoff of Power Line; and Kate O'Beirne of The Corner.
Of course, the flip side is that the liberal blogosphere can attack Thomas with perhaps more ferocity than he faced in 1991. Oliver Willis certainly is doing his part, headlining blog posts with jabs about "pubic hair" and Thomas being "pathetic."
And the rest of us? Well, we get to sit back and enjoy the fireworks of history being replayed on our computer screens.
Posted by Danny | 12:39 PM
