Clarence Thomas' Ex-Girlfriend Lillian McEwen Throws Him Under the Bus and Backs Over Him a Few Times
Well I hope teabagger Ginni Thomas is proud of herself for her phone call to Anita Hill asking her to apologize for her testimony about her husband during his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court 19 years ago, because it seems she's brought some other women out of the woodwork to defend Anita Hill. I can only hope that McEwen isn't the last of them.
One of Clarence Thomas's ex-girlfriends, Lillian McEwen appeared on Larry King Live and pretty much threw Thomas under the bus and backed over him a few times. Here are some of the more devastating portions of the interview and you can read the entire transcript here.
LARRY KING: Good evening. In 1991, Anita Hill leveled some explosive charges during the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas who ultimately became an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Those accusations resurfaced recently, when one of Thomas' former girlfriends spoke out about them. Lillian McEwen is that person. She is a former federal prosecutor, administrative judge, and council to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is her first and only network, prime-time interview.
Silent all these years, Lillian, you could have been a valuable edition to those hearings, why not?
LILLIAN MCEWEN: I was not subpoenaed by either side.
KING: Did they know about you?
MCEWEN: Yes.
KING: Both sides?
MCEWEN: Yes.
KING: Well, obviously, Judge Thomas 's side wasn't going to subpoena you to appear, right? That would not have been in their best interests?
MCEWEN: I don't know.
KING: Joe Biden was head of the Senate Committee, right?
MCEWEN: Yes.
KING: What was the reason for not hearing your story?
MCEWEN: I don't know.
KING: Well, what happened, they just rejected it?
MCEWEN: What I asked Clarence about was, what position should I take in reference to any reporters who wanted to talk to me, or anything that he wanted to emphasize as far as my relationship with him was concerned. His response to me was the position his first wife had taken, Kathy, was fine with him, which said to me that his wishes were that I would say nothing to the press. So I acceded to his wishes as far as my -- making myself available to the press.
KING: But you did write to Senator Biden then, right?
MCEWEN: I did write a note to Senator Biden's staff saying that- reminding them that Clarence and I had a very close relationship, and reminding them also, that he used to come frequently to the office space. And was friendly with much of the staff there, on Biden's staff, in the Russell Senate Office Building, just in case they had forgotten.
KING: You were not going to accede to his wishes about saying nothing, if Biden had called you, you would have appeared?
MCEWEN: Of course, if I had been subpoenaed, I would have appeared. And if the Senator had asked me questions, I certainly would have answered them. But that didn't occur either.
[...]
KING: In her testimony at the 1991 confirmation hearings, Anita Hill said that Clarence Thomas made workplace comments to her that included references to pornography. Here's some of what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films, involving such matters as women having sex with animals, and films showing group sex, or rape scenes. He talked about pornographic materials, depicting individuals with large penis' or large breasts involved in various sex acts. On several occasions, Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: OK, when you saw that, Lillian, what did you think?
MCEWEN: I thought she was telling the truth.
KING: Based on your own observations about him?
MCEWEN: Yes.
KING: Were you shocked that someone was saying this publicly?
MCEWEN: No.
KING: Did you know Anita Hill?
MCEWEN: Not well. But, yes, I knew her.
KING: And you weren't surprised that she was coming forward and saying this?
MCEWEN: No.
KING: Were you surprised that he was approved?
MCEWEN: Given the rules that the hearing allowed to apply to the testimony and to the witnesses, I was not surprised that he was approved.
KING: By the way, we reached out to Associate Justice Clarence Thomas for a statement about this interview and the topics we're addressing, and we were told he has no comment. We'll be right back.
[...]
KING: We're back with Lillian McEwen. We have another excerpt from Clarence Thomas' confirmation testimony. It is a flat denial of Anita Hill's allegations and a comment about how the charges that she made affected him. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS: Since September 25th, I have suffered immensely as these very serious charges were leveled against me. I have been wracking my brains and eating my insides out trying to think of what I could have said or done to Anita Hill to lead her to allege that I was interested in her in more than a professional way. And that I talked with her about pornographic or X-rated films.
Contrary to some press reports. I categorically denied all of the allegations and denied that I ever attempted to date Anita Hill, when first interviewed by the FBI. I strongly reaffirm that denial.
KING: Was he lying?
MCEWEN: He was parsing his words very carefully.
KING: He said he didn't try to date her. He didn't try to do anything with her, he was denying what she was saying, wasn't he?
MCEWEN: I think he said at that time or something like that. Every time he makes a statement, he qualifies it, that to me, that doesn't mean he did not have a sexual relationship with her at some point in time, other than these events that she's stating. And it -- he's talking about what she said. It's very carefully worded.
KING: Sort of like what is, "is"?
MCEWEN: Yes, sort of like that.
KING: What do you make of his wife calling Anita Hill last week?
MCEWEN: When I first heard it, I was half asleep. And it was brought to my attention by Michael Fletcher, a reporter that I knew on "The Washington Post" who I had never allowed to interview me, and never given a statement to. And he tricked me into giving him my impression of what that meant. And it was a genuine response that I gave him half asleep. And it was that it doesn't surprise me at all.
KING: Why do you think she called her?
MCEWEN: She called Anita Hill because this is a subject that is a source of great angst for her husband. It's also most likely a subject that is mysterious to her, because so much of that particular complex subject makes no sense in the version that her husband would have given her over the years. She most likely thought that she was solving a problem for her husband. She most likely thought she was doing him a favor by making that call.
KING: You think, therefore, it's still discussed in that marriage?
MCEWEN: I think that Clarence has never told his wife the truth about the kind of activity that he engaged in at that point in time, when he was at EEOC and at Education. I don't think he's told her the truth about his preferences, sexually. I don't think he's told her the truth about the relationships that he had with women who worked at EEOC other than Anita Hill, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
KING: What is one of those preferences sexually?
MCEWEN: Well, it's kind of complicated, and I don't feel comfortable talking about that in this context.
KING: What do you think generally of his decisions on the court?
MCEWEN: His decisions to me can be very simply explained. And the explanation, I think, for the originalism, for the stark conservatism, for the disparate treatment of different kinds of groups is simply this: he is rewarding those people that he thinks are his friends. He is also punishing those people he thinks are his enemies.
KING: So it's personal?
MCEWEN: It is extremely personal.
KING: But he benefited from affirmative action?
MCEWEN: Yes, he did.
KING: And he's been against it?
MCEWEN: Yes.
KING: How do you explain that?
MCEWEN: Simple, punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends. His enemies are people who are active in civil rights, professors who have criticized him, and anybody who disagrees with the conservative friends he has, such as Rush Limbaugh.
KING: Why did you come out now?
MCEWEN: Come out now?
KING: Well --
MCEWEN: That's kind of a loaded question.
KING: You had a good friend at "the Washington Post" and you never spoke to him about it.
MCEWEN: That's true. First, he caught me by surprise with the question about the phone call. And secondly, at this point in my life, I'm a lot older. I've written what I want to write about my own life. And Clarence is just a part of that. I have no fear any more.
KING: Thank you, Lillian. Lillian McEwen, former girlfriend of Justice Clarence Thomas. Again, we reached out to Justice Thomas for a statement on tonight's interview. We were told no comment.
And one last note, thanks so much to now Vice President Joe Biden for allowing this unqualified person to be allowed to be appointed to the Supreme Court. I don't know what you traded off to keep these women from testifying, but I hope you think it was worth it in the face of the Citizens United ruling.
Yes. There should be more of these women to "come out" as Larry King puts it. MORE. The more that come out, the less Thomas can deny it, the more his wife finally realizes that he is a very good liar.
I think it's more a matter of not having had to face a large enough population of people willing to contradict his story.
I think his wife really believes he got the short end of the deal during his confirmation hearings, and has no idea of the shenannigans her future hubby was up to back then. I think she really thought she was doing her husband a favor by thinking that Ms. Hill would easily own up to her lies after all these years, and her husband would be vindicated.
Instead, we're about to see that Ms. Hill, and everyone else who dares to come forward at this late date, will be vindicated.
Lying to one's wife can have such ugly consequences.
...Civil Rights leaders while replacing a Civil Rights legend on the Supreme Court. Original Bush not only found a lying alcoholic repulsive pervert, but possibly the most self despising Black man in America.
Unca Clarence would have attempted it back in the 60s, and tried to pass for white.
And no one is going to tell me his grandfather taught him that self-hatred and self-loathing.
Ms. Ginni is scared Unca Clarence might leave her for one of those "sistas" he used to harass, and if he does, there goes her coattails upon which she has pulled herself up into renown, because if she's not married to Unca Clarance, no one gives a damn, and no one would know who the hell she is.
I dunno, it sounds more than a little plausible to me. By Thomas' own account, his grandfather was a complete asshole whose "strictness" bordered on outright abuse. Self-loathing is a common consequence of an abusive upbringing.
I have never heard Thomas relate anything but praise towards his grandfather. Even his Wiki page talks about the grandfather being a 'great man' who taught Clarence the value of hard-work and education.
I think religion is a big part of Thomas' disfunction. He wanted to be a priest.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
There's also a connection between abusive, authoritarian upbringings, and creepy sexual behavior, misogyny, and sexism.
his grandfather also taught him pride and work ethic.
Of course, that's probably lost by now; if he had any ethics...never mind.
I'm sure he does not despise himself in the slightest. On the other hand anything that might diminish his glory, such as for example, what the lady said above: that Clarence was the beneficiary of affirmative action is probably a worse insult to his ego than anything Hill said at his confirmation hearing.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Protector of Conservatives like Limbaugh and hater of Civil Rights leaders who helped his non-achieving sorry ass get an education? Alcoholic, sexual deviant, abuser of women, serial liar? A Black man who is only the second Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history, replacing an icon of the civil rights movement yet virtually universally despised by Black Americans? Thomas saw himself as a kind of Jackie Robinson when actually he's a fucking Barry Bonds. I don't give a shit how far Thomas' race manipulations have gotten him, the man is a morally bankrupt failure.
If I were Clarence Thomas, I'd hate the fuck out of myself.
had a great skit titled "Here comes the grudge" about Thomas after his whiny, self-serving book was published.
Tuesday October 2, 2007
Minority Opinion
Justice Clarence Thomas finds the last vestige of racial discrimination with his own trial with Anita Hill.
Tuesday October 2, 2007
Here Comes the Grudge
Jason Jones reports on Clarence Thomas' bitterness and wonders who hasn't played the "furry pop top" trick.
me-oww!
what this amounts to is 20 year-old she said/he said, with no tangible, corroborating evidence to support her claims. personally, i have little doubt her assertions are true, but that's me. the republicans will (rightfully) point out, as i just did, that this is nothing but ms. mcewen trying to buff sales for (what they will deem) a book filled with spurious accusations.
the difference is that ms. hill was (nearly literally) dragged, kicking & screaming, against her stated desires, to testify, under oath, before the house judiciary committee, making her statements that much more compelling and believable, while ms. mcewen was not.
expect the baying of the hounds.
devastating testimony was about a pubic hair on a can of Coke. McEwen just suggested that Thomas was the beneficiary of affirmative action, did not merit the position on the court and that he knew it. I don't think they would ever have let such a person testify who might publicly say such a thing. It serves the purposes ofneither the left nor the right and that's probably why Biden let that sleeping dog lie.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Ms. McEwen has said she entered the fray because a WaPo reporter 'tricked' her into making a comment over the phone. If true, that could expalin her desire to clarify any previous remarks. She was already shopping her book, and made no public statments regarding Thomas until Ginni opened the can of worms.
Also, with McEwen's background it is unlikely that she is unaware of defamation laws.
Not that attacking the messenger is above the right-wing. ;o}
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
These allegations seem a little disingenuous to me. I'm not a fan of Clarence Thomas -- in fact I think they should have just doubled Scalia's votes, because that's what his appointment essentially accomplished -- but something's not right here. If this woman knew some serious dirt on Thomas she should have spoke up when it was time, not wait 20 years and all these horrible decisions later.
Beware of anyone promising a future full of yesterdays.
McEwen was counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe Biden was chairman of that committee, McEwen couldn't MAKE them let her testify.
There were other woman who backed Anita Hill at the time-you just didn't see them testify before the committee.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
to talk about a former lover's sexual toys, fetishes, favorite erogenous zones,etc. There is an implicit lover-lover promise of confidentiality. How does a Supreme Court Justice respond? She was such a tight-ass I needed porn to get it up?
....AFTER TWENTY YEARS instead of trying to make her and her husband out to be fucking victims again, Ms. McEwen would have never uttered a word.
(but didn't pay close attention). She made Thomas out (in my eyes, anyway) as just another middle-age guy who likes to watch too much porn, kinda like me. So now where's my Supreme Court appointment?
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I think ?!
I'm guessing no one would really care if Clarence just watched porn and even dabbled in 'playacting' his porn fantasies with his various wives and girlfriends, because no one would know.
The problem is that Clarence apparently has very bad judgment, in that he talked about the porn and made other totally despicable comments/unwelcome actions with his female colleagues and subordinates, including Hill and several others who were not called to testify.
This kind of behavior is explicitly prohibited in the workplace (and doing it in a workplace including a whole bunch of attorneys makes it even dumber, as they were aware of the laws). It can be very intimidating to employees, especially if they fear they could lose their jobs if they report the behavior, but even if it's not 'intimidating'...no one should have to endure that kind of deviance and disgusting attitude while at work.
The fact that Clarence subjected several professional women to this crap should have been evidence that he was not suitable to sit on the highest court in the country.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
...that Thomas has personal grudges against Civil Rights leaders, anyone who attacks his conservative friends like Rush Limbaugh or Conservative causes, and that she wasn't afraid anymore.
I wouldn't be going anywhere on a Cessna for awhile.
me-oww!
Ms.Ginni is scared Clarence might leave her for some "brown sugar". The fact that all of these women are coming out and supporting Anita Hill opened up a bigger can of worms than Ginni thought, and in her stance of "white privilege" she thought she could just call up Anita and make her apologize for the fact that her husband is a pervert who has to harass women so he can get laid.
cares, i suffer no such delusion. i suspect, having lived with justice thomas for many years, she knows full what kind of man he is. she's either ok with it, or, like the classic abused spouse, convinces herself it isn't true. in either event, absent some traumatic event, her views aren't going to change now.
________________
common sense matters as much as truth
that might be the most damning.
Gosh, that almost sounds like he's an "activist" judge. And to think this was our replacement for Thurgood Marshall. It shouldn't have ben a "high-tech lynching," it should have been an actual lynching by the black political community. What a dick.
dolphinkazoo.com - smart. shrill.
suggests one is advocating for one's principles . . . mcewen makes is sound like thomas is just playing out petty, personal vendettas, that for instance, he isn't really against affirmative action on principle but because those who support it are his personal enemies
Using supreme judicial authority to exact revenge on those he disagrees with...sounds like a vote Progressives can forever count against.
What an asshole.
I hope he doesn't have any children out there because there is going to be deadly serious repercussions from this. After hearing this, he'll have to be impeached off the court in order to remove him because he's one of those stubborn-types who doesn't get it, he just doesn't see anything wrong.
Now I wonder how the gay community feels knowing he was voting against them the entire time on all sorts of cases. He'd better watch his back after this. And I'm wondering if Ginni understands she's just given the rest of the country a reason to impeach her lying husband?
When will Ginni realize she's been married to the black Larry Craig???
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Larry's intro line is weak/misleading:
"those accusations resurfaced recently when one of Judge Thomas' former girlfriends spoke out about them."
Shouldn't that be:
"those accusations resurfaced recently when Judge Thomas' batshit crazy, teabagger wife asked Anita Hill to apologized for the harassment she endured from Judge Thomas."
?
I was shocked to see he's still among the living, I thought the wife/sister-in-law triangle business would have killed him off.
me-oww!
Perhaps it's nasty and maybe even wrong, but gotta say I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning.
In the marketplace of ideas, too many people shop in the bargain basement.
-- Thunder BlueRose
Why, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU
http://saxman.bravepages.com
The last three minutes of this interview blew my mind.
"Rewarding his friends, punishing his enemies..."
is using his position to reward friends and punish enemies?!
lying to congress about sexual harassment his fondness for porn pales in comparison
She's a woman of little words. >_>
that clarence thomas was chummy with his staff?!
why didn't king follow up on this statement?! it sounds like she is admitting she warned biden's office that, if they called her to testify, she would reveal something embarrassing to biden and/or his staff!
... we have the Democrats to blame for the Supreme Court right wing over load.
The justices Bush nominated where young pro business, anti-middle class right wingers who will be around for a L-O-N-G time. The congress should have fought tooth and nail to reject them. Instead I heard this from the Democraps... "he's the standing president, he should get whoever he wants"! The current leak of Thomas and Alito going to a Koch cabal only puts an exclamation point on it.
and I believe her now. And despite him being the VP, I will never forgive him for the way he allowed Anita Hill to be treated before the Judiciary Committee all those years ago.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
there is something more to biden's involvement in the thomas confirmation . . . she says she "reminded" him that thomas was "friendly" with biden's staff . . . to me, that sounds like a veiled reference to some spillable beans
given that thomas has figured heavily in the destruction of our democracy -- the gifting of the presidency to bush, the clerkship of john "torture" yoo, citizens united -- biden should be held to account if his hands are not clean
Everyone wants to know why now, well it is a case of misdirection, a bright shiny object. Now that Thomas (and Scalia) are being shown as the shills they are for the Koch brothers and others, the Thomas's felt the need to take the heat off thier bigger ethics violations. Now could ask why didn't Scalia act as well, one he is a lot smarter and two he doesn't give a sh*t.
How could John Danforth sit there so calmly and hear Clarence lie? Do we believe that only the women knew about Clarence Thomas's preferences? They all had to know.It is one sick boy's club when they try to make a woman out to be liar and cover up their buddies' perversions. I hope that all of the women who know what Clarence Thomas was and is come out now. Ginni opened the Pandora's box that was containing the ancient lies. Now, the truth won't set Clarence free but will make us loathe him more. .
That's for sure!!!!! I laughed out loud when I heard Ms. McEwen say that.
this couldn't have happened to a more deserving fellow. bravo, clarence!
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