We admit to being mystified over the creepy telephone message left on Prof. Anita Hill's phone by teabaggin' tornado Ginni "The Ninny" Thomas, who of course is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence "Long Dong" Thomas. Nineteen years ago, during Long Dong's confirmation hearing, it was revealed by Hill that she had been sexually harassed by Long Dong. She produced several credible, contemporary witnesses who backed up her story, and also some from Long Dong's past who said it was consistent with earlier behavior. A desperate Long Dong, when faced with the prospect of career death, went on the offensive and played the race card ("high-tech lynching" comes to mind).
Here's Dahlia Lithwick's take in Slate on The Ninny's bizarre phone call:
"It's also not clear why Ginni Thomas believes that re-arguing Thomas v. Hill 19 years later could possibly benefit Clarence Thomas. Yes, the Internet is buzzing today with claims that Prof. Hill, who never wanted to testify against Thomas in the first place and hasn't sought out any of these Desperate Housewives-style battles, is a liar and always was one. But the Washington Post has already found a former girlfriend of Justice Thomas' who claims that Hill's account of Thomas' behavior in the early 1980s is consistent with the Clarence Thomas she once dated. A new generation of Americans is being reminded of the fact that Hill took a polygraph test at the time of the hearings while Clarence Thomas did not. Anyone who ever read Strange Justice, by Jill Abramson and Jane Mayer, is recalling the exhaustive research they put into establishing that Anita Hill had been smeared."
There's speculation that what drove The Ninny to make the passive-aggressive call was the impending story about her teabagger organization receiving several hundred thousand dollars in anonymous contributions, which could raise questions about Long Dong's impartiality if a teabagger issue came before the Court. Whatever the reason, we now know that Long Dong isn't the creepiest one in the Thomas household; The Ninny has just edged him out.
(photo: "I believe Clarence. I also believe that people will take me seriously in this headgear.")
