Ex-GF breaks her 19-year silence about Justice Clarence Thomas..he was obessed with porn

[HipChick]

so she left Anita Hill hanging in the wind?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102106645.html?sid%3DST2010102004599&sub=AR

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman.

At the time, she was on good terms with Thomas. The former assistant U.S. attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee counsel had dated him for years, even attending a March 1985 White House state dinner as his guest. She had worked on the Hill and was wary of entering the political cauldron of the hearings. She was never asked to testify, as then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who headed the committee, limited witnesses to women who had a "professional relationship" with Thomas.

Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't.

And she is silent no more.

She has written a memoir, which she is now shopping to publishers. News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas.

To McEwen, Hill's allegations that Thomas had pressed her for dates and made lurid sexual references rang familiar.

"He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners," McEwen said matter-of-factly. "It was a hobby of his."
He was obsessed with porn," she said of Thomas, who is now 63. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting."

McEwen added that she had no problem with Thomas's interests, although she found pornography to be "boring."

According to McEwen, Thomas would also tell her about women he encountered at work. He was partial to women with large breasts, she said. In an instance at work, Thomas was so impressed that he asked one woman her bra size, McEwen recalled him telling her.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Nice timing...See Ginny's head explode

What a fool.

[msanthrope]

3. I think Ginny knew this was coming down the pike...n/t

[Raksha]

44. Of course Ginny knew what was coming down the pike!

Her sudden "out-of-the-blue" demand for an apology from Anita Hill after all these years wasn't really out of the blue. I am NOT surprised to see this story on DU today, and I doubt if anyone else is either.

[msanthrope]

2. Judge McEwen worked for Joe Biden while dating Thomas---

Which tells me that Biden knew exactly what this dirtbag was, and, that Ms. McEwen, at the time, did not feel she had the clout or support to come forward....


"McEwen's connection to Thomas was strictly personal. She had even disclosed that relationship to Biden, who had been her boss years earlier."

[Tatiana]

19. To me it seemed like McEwen and Thomas may have been on amicable terms at the time.

She seems very matter-of-fact about his penchant for naughtiness. It may be likely that she did not want to jeopardize her own career by revealing information that would corroborate Hill's testimony.

[msanthrope]

26. Entirely possible. But she did not have to be a 'hostile' witness to confirm

Thomas's penchant for porn...all she had to do was tell the truth...

now, the question is why didn't Biden call her?

[Tatiana]

29. Remember Harriet Grant (Scooter Libby's wife now) is the one that reviewed all the allegations

against Clarence. Harriet would likely have stonewalled anything McEwen tried to corroborate.

[msanthrope]

40. Senate Judiciary really is incestuous snake-fucking, isn't it? n/t

[YOY]

4. Oh dear Mrs Thomas...you may have opened a can of worms...

Couldn't have happened to a nicer person...

[proud patriot]

45. +1

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whathehell]

6. He sounds so....

lovely...:eyes:

[msanthrope]

9. A real keeper, eh? n/t

[whathehell]

12. Really...It's a wonder he ever got past a first date! n/t

[msanthrope]

27. Maybe the comparisons to Long Dong Silver were apt. n/t

[whathehell]

43. It would take more than that for me,

but whatevah...

[MineralMan]

7. Aha! Perhaps we can embarrass Justice Thomas to the point

where he feels it necessary to resign. Now, that would be a goal worth working toward, I think.

And yet, I doubt it will ever happen.

[SpiralHawk]

14. "At least I wasn't into diaper sex with hookers." - Clarence T. (R)

"...or into wide-stance rentboy faux lesbian luggage-handling credit card sex in airport bathrooms, like some other Republicons. I think my Republicon cronies should give me a standing O -- like they did for Senator Diaper Dave Vitter (R). So there."

- Clarence T. (R)

[blm]

25. LOLOLOLOL....It's the Republican Way.

.

[walldude]

8. She's shopping a book... she won't be taken seriously

I have no doubt she is telling the truth but it's too little to late. She knew what a jerk this guy was and she still let him get on the Supreme Court? While, like you said, leaving Anita Hill hanging in the wind? Sounds like she couldn't drum up any interest in her book and hit the jackpot when Thomas's wife decided to make an ass of herself.

[msanthrope]

15. Judge McEwen will be taken seriously. She worked for Joe Biden while

she was dating Thomas, so I suspect there's a big, fat juicy DC story there.

[DURHAM D]

33. You may want to check out my post below -

an excerpt from Anita's book.

My blood pressure has been spiking this week as I relive that miserable circus of Democrat and Republican men who clearly didn't, and perhaps still don't, think there is anything wrong with sexual harassment. They didn't/don't think it is/was wrong.

IMO - the only lynching that went on back then was of a good woman who is very private. Most people don't realize that she did not come to the Committee - they went after her and all the other women that they then would not allow to testify. Actually Biden and his troops lynched millions of women who have experienced unwanted attention in the work place.

[G_j]

10. Congress let Hill hang in the wind

by shutting down the the hearings with other witnesses willing to testify.

[DURHAM D]

30. They didn't just hang her in the wind - they treated like a defendant in a criminal trial.

From Anita's book - Speaking Truth to Power

"Midway through the morning of my testimony at the Thomas confirmation hearing, Senator Howell Heflin, Democrat of Alabama, summed up the Republican attack on my credibility. A former state supreme court judge and trial attorney, Senator Heflin appeared to be deliberating aloud as he explained his approach.

"I, and I suppose every member of this committee, have to come down to the ultimate question of who is telling the truth. My experience as a lawyer and a judge is that you listen to all the testimony and then you try to determine the motivation for the one that is not telling the truth.

"Now, in trying to determine whether you are telling falsehoods or not, I have got to determine what your motivation might be. Are you a scorned woman?" he asked.

"No," I said, a bit surprised by the line of questioning but certain of my answer.

"Do you have a martyr complex?" With his heavy accent and deliberate pacing, "martyr" came out sounding like "mah'duh."

"No, I don't."

"Maybe she is a martyr and doesn't know it," someone behind me snickered.

"Do you have a militant attitude relative to the area of civil rights?"

"No, I don't." I was not certain what he meant, but I knew I was not a militant in the way the term was defined in the 1960s.

"The reality of where you are today is rather dramatic," Senator Heflin said. "Did you take, as Senator Biden asked you, all steps that you knew how to take to prevent being in the witness chair today?"

"Yes, I did. Everything that I knew to do, I did." I felt like a child who was being chastised for wandering into traffic.

Senator Heflin's questions revealed a truth about the hearing. Generally, questions about motive are raised in the context of a criminal trial. They are designed to elicit the impetus for a criminal act. The prosecution presents the theory that the accused committed the crime out of greed, rage, or passion. The defense attorney attempts to show that none of these factors existed in the case. Heflin's questions revealed that I was being treated as a defendant.

The Republicans had accused me of lying about Clarence Thomas' sexual harassment of me when I worked for him ten years earlier. They effectively shifted the hearing on whether Thomas was suitable to serve on the Court to a hearing on whether I could rebut their presumption that I was lying. Primed by all the rhetoric before the hearing, the American public was predisposed to be suspicious of my statements and my behavior. Before anyone would even listen to my charges, I had to prove that my character was such that I was not guilty of inventing them. Throughout the country, people were poised to register their verdict through the polls taken during the hearing."

[G_j]

34. bad flashback for me with Biden

& I also remember watching him throw softballs to the witnesses during the Iran Contra hearings. Since then, I've never trusted the dude.

------

maybe somebody will dredge up the entire Anita Hill testimony and make it available.

[DURHAM D]

36. You probably remember this:

Angela Wright. Scroll past the pic and newspaper copy for easier reading.

http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/selectedwork/docs/AngelaWright_TheOtherWoman.pdf

[G_j]

42. big thanks, just read the whole thing

interesting to read all the different reasons given for her not testifying..

btw, The Complete Transcripts, Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill - Paperback (Aug. 30, 2005) by Nina Totenberg

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=nina+totenberg&x=16&y=19

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. He Must Have Been A Real Prince Charming.

Regaling female with your obsession for pornography is a great way to endear yourself with them. I wonder if he shared his obsession with Ginni.

[WinkyDink]

13. "Disgruntled ex-gf trying to sell a book." Do I have it right?

[msanthrope]

16. Judge McEwen? I think she's a bit more than that. n/t

[WinkyDink]

21. The quote marks clearly indicate it is what I expect to HEAR, not what I think.

You think FOX, which calls the PRESIDENT names, will stop at a JUDGE?!

[msanthrope]

23. I misunderstood you, and I apologize. I think Fox will studiously ignore

the Judge....although Laura Ingraham may want to defend her ex-boss.

[WinkyDink]

31. :-)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. Does Anybody Remember The Professor Who Testified On His Behalf?

He looked like he came out of a museum and said " He couldn't believe such a man watched porn. That such a man would only read Shakespeare or Yates." or some such nonsense.

It struck me as absurd in two senses; almost any man has watched porn and that he was shocked.

[joeybee12]

18. NO...she didn't leave Anita hanging...she and three other ladies wanted to

testify in support of Ms. Hill...Biden and the committee nixed that...another example of Congress never really wanting to get to the truth.

[DURHAM D]

38. Because most of them were committing the same crime...

They didn't think it was a crime for the 100 most powerful men in the world to enjoy the spoils of office.

[HopeHoops]

20. I'd love to do a statistical analysis of Republican voter lists and subscriptions to extreme porn.

Obviously the lists would be difficult to come by (no pun intended), but it would be interesting. And I'm not talking about Playboy, Penthouse, or Hustler - those are mild. I'd like to run the correlations on really sick stuff like web sites that offer "hairy preggo fucks a horse" type shit - you know, nothing ANYONE should be interested in (and I just made that term up because it sounded too weird to be true). I'm not the gambling sort, but I might just put money on the odds that there's a strong correlation between how far to the right one is and how sick the porn is that they subscribe to.

Note: I fully support the 1st Amendment and even sick porn has a right to exist (as long as the participants are of legal age). That's not the issue here. It is the hypocritical bullshit the right wing throws out about "family values" and other such nonsense that they don't practice in their own lives.

:grr:

[wtmusic]

22. Maybe Ginny should have let sleeping dogs lie? nt

[Arugula Latte]

35. Yep, I was thinking that. However,

if she's naive enough to think ol' Pube on Coke is truly innocent, she probably doesn't have the brainpower to put it all together.

[wtmusic]

41. The pube-on-Coke-can incident was something you couldn't make up

Sorry Clarence, but philanderer and Supreme Court justice are two paths which are just not that complementary :crazy:

[angel123]

24. ex GF shopping book.

If I read the article correctly, McEwen has been shopping the book for some time. She hopes that Ginny's call would elict interest in her book. I'm thinking Ginny got wind of the book and was trying to do damage control. Think about it.

[msanthrope]

28. Welcome to DU!!!

[ProfessorGAC]

37. Not Drawing The Same Conclusion

Unless Ginny has money invested in the book, i would think that this would do nothing but drum of interest. Ginny's actions make the book MORE salable and those increase the interest of publishers.

If she really was concerned about, she would have laid low, since nobody would have cared about a CT tell-all until Ginny opened her big yapper.
GAC

[deaniac21]

39. ProfessorGAC, right again!

[nashville_brook]

46. i wouldn't bet on that woman being that sophisticated. her phone call is classic church lady

aggression.

[randr]

32. Want to place a bet on wether or not Virginia ran this on by the Chief Liar?

[bullwinkle428]

47. I'm betting the advent of the smartphone has given this guy

all kinds of new opportunities to explore his fetishes anywhere and anytime!