Thomas: Confirmation battle like terror war

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas likened his bruising 1991 confirmation hearings to America’s war on terrorism, explaining that it, too, was a battle between “good and evil.”

He also credited, above all others, political economist and demographer Thomas Sowell for shaping his opinions and developing the way he analyzes issues on the bench.

Justice Clarence Thomas

Thomas made the extraordinary remarks Oct. 17 at a conservative black leadership awards banquet in Washington. He presented awards named after Sowell to several black luminaries at the private, $500-a-head event, which was attended by Vice President Dick Cheney.

The 53-year-old Thomas said that Sowell, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and Ph.D. economist, has been the “single greatest influence on my intellectual development.”

Thomas Sowell

He says Sowell’s seminal book, “Race and Economics,” made him rethink many of the notions he held as a young black attorney from the Midwest.

In 1978, Sowell, as a UCLA economics professor, challenged the prevailing liberal dogma that discrimination alone is responsible for black poverty.

With his wife, Virginia, by his side at the Centre for New Black Leadership event, Thomas also recalled the bitter fight over his Senate confirmation 10 years ago, when Anita Hill, backed by Democrats, charged that Thomas allegedly expressed interest in pornography and sexually harassed her on the job.

He said that President Bush – “George the First,” as he called him – sensed his nomination would be controversial and prepared him for a tough fight.

Bush invited him to his mansion in Kennebunkport, Maine, Thomas recalled, and asked him two questions: “One, ‘Will you call them as you see them [on the bench]?’ and, two, ‘Can you survive a difficult confirmation?'”

Little did he know how difficult. Thomas framed the hearings as simply a fight between “good and evil,” and compared it to America’s battle against terrorism.

But he said his past 10 years on the high court have been “fabulous,” and he praised his fellow justices for treating him with respect. He added that he looks forward to over 30 more years of “calling them as I see them.”