Letters to the Editor

Clarence Thomas casts himself in "Native Son" How can a justice with such a keen sense of his own persecution be so blind to others'? Tim Grieve [2007-10-01]

• Thomas and Vietnam

  Hi,

  I have followed Thomas' career with personal interest because he and I (along with Al Gore and Tom Delay and a couple million others) all graduated college in 1970 into the teeth of Nixon's draft lottery, which was held the previous December. Our four year deferments were up, and those who drew high numbers (Delay) skated, while guys like Clarence, Al and me who drew low numbers were certain to be drafted and could forget about things like graduate school. I've read that Thomas got a medical "out" for curvature of the spine, the "no backbone out." Yet at the time he was a weightlifter and an avid flag-football player.

  I was furious during his confirmation hearings that not a single question, not one, was asked about how he dealt with the most important issue of his youth--Vietnam. Perhaps asking for X-rays to confirm the legitimacy of his out would have been going too far, but there were a multitude of questions regarding what he did or didn't do in those years--did he march in peace protests? Did he despise them? We still don't know, because the committee never bothered to ask. It was perhaps the only opportunity history will ever afford to ask a conservative who himself was subject to the draft in an undeclared war about his views of the myriad of constitutional legalities surrounding that war while under oath. Instead, it was pubes on Coke cans.

  The main reason I could never vote for Joe Biden was his failure, as chairman of that committee, to question Thomas on the most controversial issue of his generation. I'm still furious about it. When the hearings began I had high hopes that they would nail him to the wall on Vietnam both personally and for his legal views and perhaps kill his nomination by exposing him as a chickenhawk and hypocrite. But nooooo, and instead I came very reluctantly to feel sorry for the guy and outraged at Saint Anita for diverting attention from where it should have been.

  The assertion that referring to something that looked like a pubic hair on a Coke can was some kind of kinky sexual come-on, and that the press bought it as such, sent me over the top. Maybe it's because I remember what we called the "pubic wars" from my freshman dorm. If Clarence's freshman dorm was anything like mine, "pubing" Coke cans and pizzas and pillows was a regular prank that had to be religiously guarded against lest one become a victim--ha ha ha. The idea that a guy of my era referring to a common juvenile grossosity like pubing would ever intend it to be a come-on to a member of the opposite sex is completely absurd. Yet that's how it was written.

  Though I won't buy the book, I'll be interested to hear if he addresses any issues regarding Vietnam. My guess is that like a true conservative, he'll skip the war entirely.

  Oh well.

  Scott Morrison

  http://www.energycaper.com

  -- energycaper
  [Read energycaper's other letters]
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