The Democrats Need to Destroy Clarence Thomas’s Reputation

Authored by newrepublic.com and submitted by thenewrepublic
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ProPublica’s report last week is jaw-dropping. In the end it shows this: Thomas used to report his gifts from right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow. Then they became a little controversial. So what did Thomas do? Stop accepting the gifts? That’s what you or I would do, or at least make them far less frequent and ostentatious. But Thomas doesn’t think like you or I do. He thinks: How I can twist the dagger into the liberal establishment’s flesh even further? So rather than stop accepting the gifts, he just decided to stop reporting them. Which ProPublica says is against the law.

Can he be impeached? Not now, with the GOP in control of the House. If that changes, sure, they can try, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others have suggested. Of course, he would be acquitted in the Senate, where two-thirds are required to convict (indeed, Samuel Chase survived).

But that’s no reason for Democrats not to do it. In fact, as I suspect AOC understands, the way partisanship works today in this country, that’s precisely an excellent reason to do it: Have a long hearing that lays bare every instance of his and his wife’s corrupt activities in a high-profile venue that Americans will watch; make the case to swing-voting Americans that he is dishonoring the court’s name and reputation; drive his approval ratings into the toilet (in a 2022 YouGov poll, Thomas already had the highest “very unfavorable” rating of the nine justices, at 32 percent); and force the Republican senators to vote to keep this clearly undeserving, mediocre, arrogant, unscrupulous hornswoggler on the court.

EaglesPDX on April 10th, 2023 at 15:12 UTC »

Exposing the corrupt Thomas family business of selling influence at the Supreme Court is what is required. Phrasing it as "destroying" them is childishly dramatic and counter productive.

Highlights.

Ginny Thomas is paid $500,000 by Crow for her "foundation". Thomas's get $2M in air plane rides, cruises, luxury vacations. Thomas gets $5M in "speaking" fees to right wing "think tanks". All Thomas rulings are identical to the views of those who paid him money.,

Big "dots" and easy to connect at Senate hearings with good graphics.

IncandescentCreation on April 10th, 2023 at 15:00 UTC »

I mean, he’s done a pretty good job of ruining his own reputation, we just need to point it out better.

Flimsy-Lie-1471 on April 10th, 2023 at 14:57 UTC »

Anybody with any common sense already knew what a horrible person he was. Then there is his traitor wife as well.