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Fox News host Brian Kilmeade insists that Democrats in Congress were "playing the race" card when they walked as House Republicans were voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.

Kilmeade on Friday asked Geraldo Rivera "who looks best" after Republican Representatives -- led by House Government and Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) -- made history by voting to hold the nation's black attorney general in contempt.

Rivera pointed to the following quote by Justice Clarence Thomas: "And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas. And it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."

Thomas was admonishing Democrats for accusing him of sexual harassing Anita Hill while he was her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but Rivera observed that the same could be said about Republicans' actions against Holder.

"The optics are horrible," he explained. "This is a terrible thing that John Boehner and Darrel Issa allowed."

"Anybody can play the race card any time they're not happy!" Kilmeade objected.

"Did race play a role in Clarence Thomas' [confirmation]?" Rivera asked. "Probably not. Did race play a role in Eric Holder being held in contempt? Probably not. But they have given sufficient ammunition to the other side to reach that conclusion."

"This is congressional graffiti. This is legislative vandalism," he continued. "Darrel Issa knew that there was not even a strong suspicion that Eric Holder knew about Fast and Furious. They could have negotiated this. They could have gotten the information they needed."

"Aren't you sick of the race card being played every time something controversial happens?" Kilmead exclaimed. "So no race card with Obamacare, that's no problem. But there's a race card when something goes wrong with Fast and Furious."

The Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Progressive Caucus and other Democrats -- including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- walked of Congress in protest on Thursday as the contempt vote was being held.

"You’re seeing the whole diversity of the Democratic caucus," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) told reporters. "This is a terrible day for the House of Representatives. What it’s about, we can’t decide for sure, but it’s not about Eric Holder and handing over papers. We don’t want to participate in something that has some kind of smell to it."

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Politics Nation's Al Sharpton went after Fox for their continued drum beat to have Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan recuse herself from the upcoming hearing on the whether the individual mandate is constitutional and ignoring Justices Scalia and Thomas and Thomas' wife Ginni and their many conflicts of interest in hearing the case, the latest being a fundraising dinner they attended with opponents of the health care law.

Here's more from Media Matters on Fox's ridiculous attacks on Kagan -- Fox Cites Non-Existent Part Of The Constitution To Hype Argument For Kagan Recusal:

For the second day in a row, Fox's "straight news" division has hyped the claim that U.S Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the case involving the constitutionality of a provision of the Affordable Care Act. Fox pointed to an email Kagan sent to then-Justice Department adviser Laurence Tribe on the day the House of Representatives passed the Affordable Care Act in which Kagan said, "I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing."

Legal ethicists have thrown cold water on the argument that Kagan needs to recuse herself over that email. But Fox seems to have an argument that the legal ethicists haven't thought of: Fox national correspondent Steve Centanni said Kagan's recusal may be required by "Article 28 of the Constitution." Fox's graphics department provided the relevant quote from the "U.S. Constitution, Article 28, Sec. 144":

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Really?

Via The Caucus blog:

Even as he is facing his own sexual harassment scandal, Herman Cain was caught on tape Thursday joking about Anita Hill, the college professor who lodged similar accusations against Clarence Thomas decades ago.

The exchange between Mr. Cain and a supporter was caught on tape by a Fox News camera at a campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. It first aired Thursday night on the network’s “Special Report” program.

According to the video, a person in the crowd mentioned Ms. Hill to Mr. Cain, who responded, jokingly, “Is she going to endorse me?” prompting laughter.

The sound is muffled, but I think they say:

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: “Did you hear the latest news today? Anita Hill is going to come [out after you]."

HERMAN CAIN: “Is she going to endorse me?”

The "joke" drew uproarious laughter.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In fairness Cain didn't make the joke - in the comedy world we call what he did a "tag." He's still a schmuck.

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Bill Kristol puts on his establishment republican hat and gives his take on Herman Cain's chances of securing the nomination, an answer not that dissimilar to what many Democrat Talking Heads would give, even poopooing the Clarence Thomas parallels. Still, somewhat odd coming from someone who continues to cheerlead for Sarah Palin.

BILL KRISTOL: ...[H]e’s not going to be the nominee, if I can just be honest here for a minute. He was never going to be the nominee. The support for him, I think, was a symbol of conservative and Republican distrust of some of the frontrunners, willingness to reward someone for being bold, for having comprehensive reform plans, for being an outsider, but I think the air is slowly going to go out of the Herman Cain bubble regardless of the sexual harassment charges.

Juan Williams then chimes in, forgetting his usual role as "The Liberal" to engage in this bit of projection, by disparaging the Black Liberal Establishment (whatever that is) and their supposed contempt of a token black man in the whiter than white world of Tea Party Republicans. No doubt Williams would take great offense as well to being referred to as the house liberal on Fox's Sunday morning show.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, I'll tell you what, I think that he has been the pinata for the black liberal establishment now for a good while. They see him as some kind of token put out by the Tea Party as an acceptable kind of black to Republicans. And I think it's been just thoroughly insulting. I think it's been harmful to him, to Herman Cain as a human being, and disrespectful of the success that he's had.

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Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour played the race card on Sunday while defending Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain against sexual harassment charges.

"I do think you have the smell here of [conservative Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas," Barbour told NBC's David Gregory. "Of where people thought he was clearly just being attacked by somebody who for years and years and years and years by somebody that never said a peep about him until he became a conservative African-American nominee for the Supreme Court."

Barbour was referring to Anita Hill, who in 1991 told a Senate panel that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas.

After making those claims, Hill and her supporters faced years of attempted character assassination by conservatives.

"I demonized Democratic senators, their staffs, and Hill's feminist supporters without ever interviewing any of them," author David Brock admitted to The New York Times in 2001.

Brock went on to found the media watchdog group Media Matters for America.

Also appearing on NBC Sunday, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) called out Barbour's support for Mississippi's personhood amendment as an example of the way the Republican Party views women's rights.

"Sexual harassment is serious," Richardson declared. "We have to protect women in the workplace. I think Mr. Cain has to answer these questions. You know what is most disturbing is a Washington Post poll that I saw. Fifty-five percent of Republicans think this charge is not serious."

"I think it is important, also, that we look at how women are fairing in Republican primaries. Personhood amendments are sprouting out everywhere. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has taken over to the point where we now have an amendment in several states that criminalize a woman's right not choose, that prevents in vitro fertilization, that prevents birth control, even in cases of rape and incest. I think what you are seeing is a huge assault on women's rights in the Republican Parties and an extreme right wing that has taken over."

Mississippi's Initiative 26 defines personhood as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."

Recent polls suggest that the state constitutional amendment -- which critics say is a backdoor way to ban abortion -- will pass. Petitions have also been filed to put personhood amendments on the ballot in Ohio, California and Nevada.

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On this weekend's Meet the Press, current GOP frontrunner Herman Cain was asked who would be his ideal model for a Supreme Court Justice and to no one's surprise, Cain named Mr. What-Scalia-Said Clarence Thomas as someone he has "a lot of respect for."

GREGORY: What about the Supreme Court? Who's your model of the ideal Supreme Court justice who you would appoint?

CAIN: I would say that there are several that I have a lot of respect for. Justice Clarence Thomas is one of them. I believe that Justice Clarence Thomas, despite all of the attacks that he gets from the left, he basically rules and makes his decisions, in my opinion, based upon the Constitution and solid legal thinking. Justice Clarence Thomas is one of my models.

GREGORY: Has he been targeted unfairly, you think?

CAIN: I think he has been targeted unfairly.

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Rep. Louis Slaughter (D-NY) told Current TV's Keith Olbermann Tuesday that a "retroactive recusal" of Justice Clarence Thomas could result in overturning the Citizens United case.

Earlier this year, the liberal group Common Cause argued that both Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia should have recused themselves from the Citizens United case because they attended events organized billionaire Charles Koch.

In addition, Thomas' wife, Virginia Thomas, may have received financial benefit from the Citizens United ruling, something that was never disclosed by the justice.

Twenty House Democrats Thursday called on the U.S. Judicial Conference to formally request that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Justice Clarence Thomas's non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.

Justice Thomas indicated on his annual financial disclosure forms that his wife had received no income since he joined the bench in 1991, despite the fact that his wife had in fact earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007.

"What I'm very interested here is the votes that he has cast that may be in conflict," Slaughter explained to Olbermann. "Of course, his wife can work. But the fact is there are only nine justice on that Supreme Court and it certainly should be a given that a family member of any of those people lucky enough to be a Supreme Court justice should not in any way involve themselves in matters that will go before that court. Now, we all know that she worked very hard for the Citizens United case, which I think is one of the most egregious things that have ever happened in the United States Supreme Court."

She added: "There is such a thing as a retroactive recusal. We're looking into that. That case, if you remember, was decided 5-4. If we could take away his vote, we could wipe that out. It would lose. How 'bout that?"

"That's only the future of the democracy there, isn't it?" Olbermann asked.

"Yes, indeed. And we are -- you know, the judiciary is the last place for all of us to go. We're only as good -- all of us -- as the courts are, only as safe as the courts are good. Their interpretations are really what give us the freedoms when you come down to it. They have enormous power."

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Anthony Weiner has resigned, but thankfully we've still got someone out there pushing for something to be done about Clarence Thomas and his unethical behavior while serving on the Supreme Court, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Rep. Chris Murphy: Thomas Gift Scandal ‘Undermine[s] The Integrity of The Entire Judiciary’:

ThinkProgress has obtained a draft letter Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) circulated this morning to his fellow members of Congress asking the House Judiciary Committee’s leadership to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court Transparency and Disclosure Act, a bill that will end the Supreme Court’s immunity to judicial ethics laws. As Murphy’s letter explains, his bill addresses the bevy of recently revealed ethics scandals involving members of the Supreme Court, including the Clarence Thomas gifting scandal [...]

In a message attached to the draft letter, Murphy asks his colleagues to join him in signing his request for “Judiciary Committee hearing on the alarming number of reports of possible unethical conduct by Supreme Court justices.” Rep. Murphy’s full draft letter requesting a hearing is copied below the fold.

Murphy is now inviting the public to co-sign his letter. You can do so here.

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Murphy Says Thomas’ Actions Call Into Question Whether He ‘Can Continue To Serve As A Justice’:

In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) — the lead sponsor of a bill which would strip Supreme Court justices of their immunity from a code of ethical conduct that applies to other federal judges — suggests that an investigation may be necessary to determine whether Justice Clarence Thomas’ many ethics scandals rise to the level where Thomas is no longer fit to serve on the nation’s highest Court [...]

Justice Thomas has sat on at least 11 cases where a Harlan Crow-affiliated group filed a brief — adopting the group’s preferred outcome in all but one case. Moreover, Thomas has yet to explain the full extent of his connections to Crow, despite news reports that Crow lavished gifts and other expensive favors on Thomas and his family. Nor has Thomas explained how his gifting scandal differs from the very similar gifting scandal that brought down Justice Abe Fortas.

Much more in both posts, so go read the rest. Keith Olbermann discussed the issue with professor of law at George Washington University Jonathan Turley who wrote about Thomas in an op-ed this March here -- Clarence Thomas' dangerous conceit.

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Those of you on twitter this weekend can't help but have been drawn into Andrew Breitbart's latest smear festival. The details are sordid and involved, as is usual with anything Breitbart touches.

Given that his latest victim is Rep. Anthony Weiner, it's important to remember what of Weiner's activities might be drawing the right wing fake video impresario's ire. Weiner discussed one of his current concerns with Rachel Maddow last Friday night.

Weiner is pushing hard for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself on any decisions involving The Healthcare Reform Act.

From the link:

Clarence Thomas’ wife earned $700,000 from half the radical right-wing ideologues in Washington. Opposing health care reform was her specialty. For 13 years, Thomas didn’t disclose a penny of that income.

He’s trying to conceal a blatant conflict of interest. His family is getting rich off an issue that’s very likely to come before the Supreme Court.

I don't expect Breitbart is getting paid for this directly. Smearing Weiner is an end in itself, and I doubt it was specifically in order to distract attention from Weiner's efforts to shame Thomas into recusing himself. Weiner is an unapologetic liberal, which draws the hate of Breitbart and his drinking buddies no matter what issues Weiner promotes.

But it is essential that we as progressives don't get distracted by Breitbart's lies. The issue is Thomas and what a complete conflict of interest it is for him to vote on anything to do with the constitutionality of the Healthcare Reform bill. Given that conflict of interest didn't stop him from voting in favor of Bush in Bush v. Gore (when Thomas's wife was on the Bush transition team) I doubt Thomas has any shame but Weiner's efforts are still commendable.

I refuse to get distracted by Breitbart's promotion of lies. It is immoral for Thomas to vote on an issue for which his WIFE is a LOBBYIST. He should be shamed into recusing himself, and if he doesn't, he should be publicly reviled and ultimately impeached.

H/T Heather for the transcript below the fold.

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Rep. Anthony Weiner joined the set of John King's show to discuss whether Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas should recuse himself from any case involving the healthcare law given his wife Ginni's conflicts of interests. And who better for King to bring on to counter him than our favorite flame thrower, Erick Erickson.

The Hill has more -- Democrats: Justice Thomas should recuse himself in healthcare reform case:

A group of 73 House Democrats on Wednesday demanded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any case examining the constitutionality of healthcare reform.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and 72 other colleagues wrote Thomas on Wednesday to ask him to sit out any Supreme Court review of President Obama's healthcare law, citing the work by Thomas's wife on behalf of efforts opposing that healthcare law.

"As members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the Democrats wrote. "We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act."

The letter reflects the growing political gamesmanship on both sides of the aisle in regard to court challenges to healthcare reform. [...]

The Democrats' demand in this instance is based on concerns about the political advocacy conducted by Ginny Thomas, a Tea Party and conservative activist. Mrs. Thomas advertises herself as a lobbyist for "clients who want a particular decision — they want to overturn health care reform," the Democrats said.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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