Clarence Thomas's wife thrills Teabaggers with "call to arms" against Obama's "leftist tyranny"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Activism of Thomas’s Wife Could Raise Judicial Issues

Virginia Thomas, left, of the organization Liberty Central, and Diana Reimer, in May lobbying against the health care bill.
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: October 8, 2010



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/politics/09thomas.html?_r=2&hp

RICHMOND, Va. — As one of the keynote speakers here Friday at a state convention billed as the largest Tea Party event ever, Virginia Thomas gave the throng of more than 2,000 activists a full-throated call to arms for conservative principles.

For three decades, Mrs. Thomas has been a familiar figure among conservative activists in Washington — since before she met her husband of 23 years, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. But this year she has emerged in her most politically prominent role yet: Mrs. Thomas is the founder and head of a new nonprofit group, Liberty Central, dedicated to opposing what she characterizes as the leftist “tyranny” of President Obama and Democrats in Congress and to “protecting the core founding principles” of the nation.

It is the most partisan role ever for a spouse of a justice on the nation’s highest court, and Mrs. Thomas is just getting started. “Liberty Central will be bigger than the Tea Party movement,” she told Fox News in April, at a Tea Party rally in Atlanta.

But to some people who study judicial ethics, Mrs. Thomas’s activism is raising knotty questions, in particular about her acceptance of large, unidentified contributions for Liberty Central. She began the group in late 2009 with two gifts of $500,000 and $50,000, and because it is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group, named for the applicable section of the federal tax code, she does not have to publicly disclose any contributors. Such tax-exempt groups are supposed to make sure that less than half of their activities are political.

Mrs. Thomas, known as Ginni, declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed without an agreement not to discuss her husband. In written responses to questions, Sarah Field, Liberty Central’s chief operating officer and general counsel, said that Mrs. Thomas is paid by Liberty Central, with the compensation set by the group’s board, and that the group has “internal reviews and protections to ensure that no donor causes a conflict of interest for either Ginni or her husband.”

Nonprofit groups with political agendas like Liberty Central are operating in this election cycle under evolving legal and regulatory standards, most notably the ruling last January by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case, which eased restrictions on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. In that case, Justice Thomas, long an advocate of dismantling campaign finance restrictions, was in the 5-to-4 majority. Wealthy individuals and some corporations, emboldened by the ruling, are giving to such groups to influence the election but still hide their tracks.

Unlike many other conservative nonprofit groups that are pouring donations into television advertising to benefit Republican candidates, Liberty Central has not done so, and it is not clear whether it will.

[still_one]

1. What a low class human being /nt

[Ikonoklast]

2. Justice Thomas is selling his vote, sends his wife to collect the bribe.

That should be the caption.

[Octafish]

3. Dumb hag's a tea-bagger.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/12/sweet-virginia.html

[moondust]

4. Certifiable nut case.

Wild extremists like her have no business anywhere near the Supreme Court.

[EFerrari]

5. Isn't she handing us a way to impeach Thomas?

[blondeatlast]

7. It would seem. Any intrepid counselors out there readuy to do some dot-connecting?

This unemployed paralegal has time on her hands and an itch to research.

[Flubadubya]

6. More of these "2nd Amendment Remedies" no doubt...

She and Ms. Angle oughta be big BFFs by now. :puke:

[deminks]

8. So, how much foreign money is going directly toward paying the wife of a Supreme ?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[blondeatlast]

9. And how can said Supreme NOT benefit? Please, let someone ask him this question. nt

[glinda]

10. He should be asked to step down effective immediately.

[felix_numinous]

11. K & R

Call to arms? How do you spell inciting violence?