Bucks
Justice Thomas, Peaches Meredith Pace Maker
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Before I get to Mighty Betsy’s exciting trip to the pacemaker factory and the reason why her Energizer Bunny batteries are good for another 10 years, here’s a well written letter from a Doylestown reader who objected to my Tom Ridge column. In it, I criticized U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
“I read your column, ‘What if Tom Ridge runs?’ in the bucks County Herald,” my critic began. “I was struck by your comment that Justice Thomas is, “young and will continue to be an embarrassment for decades to come.” Can you explain to me why Justice Thomas is an embarrassment? It seems to me a statement of this nature requires an explanation. Without an explanation, the reader can come to any number of conclusions, right or wrong.
“Given your reference to Senator Specter’s “treatment” of Anita Hill, I assume you believe Ms. Hill’s charges and not Thomas’ denials, and therefore Justice Thomas should never have been confirmed,” the reader continued. “I am not a fan of Arlen Specter, but I have read his book, “Passion for Truth,” and recently re-read the chapter regarding the Thomas-Hill affair.
“Given the inconsistencies in Ms. Hill’s testimony, (Specter contends that Hill legally committed perjury) one can only agree with Senator Specter’s conclusion that no one will ever know exactly what happened between the two, but whatever it was, it wasn’t bad enough to disqualify Thomas in Hill’s mind until ten years after the fact, and therefore should not disqualify him at the time of his nomination to the Court. I believe he [Thomas] is as intellectually, educationally, and professionally qualified as any other member of the Court,” my Doylestown reader concluded.
Friends, Justice Thomas won Senate confirmation by just three votes. The 52 to 48 margin was the narrowest that any justice received in recent history. The second closest vote was Justice Samuel Alito, 58 to 42.
Incidentally, the remaining justices won confirmation by 87 to 99 votes [of 100 Senators].
Justice Thomas was the nominee of George H. W. Bush in 1991 and succeeded Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black on the highest bench in the land. Cynics, like me, believe that the first President Bush wanted an African American conservative jurist. Bush reasoned correctly that the Senate would not have the courage to vote against a black man.
The first George Bush also wanted to teach Senate Democrats a lesson. The conservative wing of the Republican Party was still smarting…I should say furious…because Robert Bork had been denied confirmation for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987.
In the fractious Senate confirmation hearings, the Judiciary Committee voted 9 to 5 to oppose President Regan’s nominee. Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican at the time, voted with the Democrats who opposed Bork. You can understand why conservative Republicans continue to hold a grudge against Specter to this day.
When the full Senate voted, Bork lost the confirmation ballot by a resounding, 58 to 42…possibly a record.
Incidentally, the word “Bork” has made it into the dictionary. It is used as a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective. If you search “Borked” on the Internet, you’ll find two definitions. The first is not printable in a family newspaper. The second definition reads as follows: “Something is ‘Borked’ when it doesn’t work correctly or misbehaves, generally due to negligence by the person(s) that is/are responsible for it.” I thought you’d want to know about this important addition to the English language.
Anyway, George H. W. Bush was taking no chances on another conservative nominee failing to “pass muster” with the Democratic Senate. When Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, Bush told the world that Thomas was the best-qualified candidate for the bench. The best qualified? Does my Doylestown critic really think that’s true?
Friends, I believed Anita Hill’s accusations in 1991 and I do to this day.
Space limitations won’t permit my scary story about Mighty Betsy’s pacemaker. But I’ll write about it next week. There’s an important health lesson for everyone. MB is one lucky lady…so am I.
So let me close with a story about our trip to the Promenade Shops of Saucon Valley, about 10 miles north of Quakertown. There’s an important lesson here. MB and I wanted to see the new Disney movie, “Earth.” It’s an excellent documentary and you should put it on your list. Unfortunately, the Richland Regal cinema showed “Earth” in Quakertown for just one week and we’d missed it.
On our way to the movie, I took her watch to a national chain store in Quakertown to replace a battery in her wristwatch. The service was positively terrible and I left in disgust. I should have gone to a jewelry store.
As we left the movie, I noticed the J. E. Caldwell jewelry store and stopped in to see if they could help. There, I met Jeff McCandless, the manager. In four minutes, he replaced the battery and the watch roared back to life. Now, it works perfectly.
When I asked for the price, Jeff McCandless smiled and said that there was no charge. I was ready to pay $15 or $20 but he wouldn’t take a penny. He told me that we may remember the excellent service and return to his store some day to purchase something.
He’s absolutely right.
By the way, Jeff McCandless writes a monthly column for a jewelry association magazine. He writes better than I do.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith