Weigel

Hanging on the Telephone

So here is the message Clarence Thomas’s wife left for Anita Hill at 7:30 a.m. on October 9.

Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.”

That was left the morning after Thomas appeared at the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention. I can’t psychoanalyze her, but in the past nine months Thomas, a frequent conservative operator, has emerged as a wanna-be Tea Party leader and TV pundit. All of a sudden she’s in newspapers and on TV shows. Does she feel that it’s incumbent on her to re-engage with Hill, to clear up that part of the Thomas family story?