Joe Biden’s entry into the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president has resurrected, to Joe’s chagrin, the 1991 ordeal endured by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Practically all mass media outlets have dusted off the allegations aimed at Thomas by Anita Hill. Biden has been scolded for his handling of the matter, even asked to apologize publicly to her for not using her claim of being sexual harassed by Thomas. Liberals everywhere hoped that her claim would be enough to keep Thomas, a hardline conservative, from being elevated to a place on the Supreme Court.
Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware, held the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas. All candidates for the Supreme Court must be judged first by this committee where power exists to torpedo the nomination. Or, the committee has the power to approve the nomination and send it to the full Senate for a final opinion.
During the Biden-led Judiciary Committee proceedings, young attorney Anita Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her in 1981 when he was her boss at the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. She nevertheless chose to follow him to a newer position in 1982 when he was appointed chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Some senators wondered why someone who was sexually harassed would follow her supposed assailant to a new post where he would still be her boss.
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Hill testified under oath in televised hearings that the sexual harassment continued in their new surroundings at EEOC. Her claims given to Biden and the committee included tawdry details fit for a salacious magazine. When given a chance to respond, Thomas emphatically denied her claims. A divided Judiciary Committee eventually approved the nomination and later, by a slim 52-48 vote, the full Senate sided with Thomas and he took a seat on the nation’s highest court.
Here we are 28 years later and Hill’s charges are again in the news, with Joe Biden being accused of performing inadequately in his handling of the matter. Why didn’t he do a better job defending Anita Hill? Why hasn’t he asked for her forgiveness for his poor performance? Why didn’t he do more to keep Thomas off the Court? He responded to this new wave of criticism with a phone call to Hill, expressing in guarded language, “regret for what she endured.” She told the press that Biden’s call left her feeling deeply unsatisfied.
Throughout this latest revisiting of the Hill-Thomas faceoff, there has been criticism of Biden, comments from Hill, and not a whiff of comment hinting that maybe, just maybe, Hill’s charges were false — or mistaken — or unverifiable. Anyone who would ask Thomas about the matter would find him steadfastly maintaining his innocence. But the media has chosen to portray Hill as the victim leaving Thomas as a punching bag for liberals who never liked him because of his consistent conservative views, even rightly labeling him an “originalist,” someone who believes laws mean what their text stated at their origination. Believers in the flawed “doctrine” that the Constitution and other laws are “living” documents that can be interpreted to mean other than what their authors intended don’t like originalists.
Anita Hill’s claims of being abused by Thomas have never been substantiated. But the liberal mass media continues to treat her claims as proven truths thereby leaving Thomas to be considered a sexual predator. Like many other attitudes held by a high percentage of the American people, what they have been given in this instance is, in the opinion of this writer, a reversal of the truth.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
