PERSPECTIVE ON CLARENCE THOMAS : Whatever the Next Step Is, the Scoundrels Win

Those who at the last minute leaked to the press, against her express wishes, Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas have behaved despicably and created an impossible situation.

To go forward with the confirmation vote as scheduled seems to say that sexual harassment is a trivial matter. Or it suggests that Hill, whom I know instead to be a fine person, is a vicious schemer and not to be trusted. To delay the vote, however, inevitably plays into the hands of those who, having willfully failed to investigate the data in timely fashion when it was put before them, now use it--without investigation--to besmirch Thomas. It practically invites others to make similar last-minute charges, which may be totally groundless, to derail nominees in the future.

To vote now is to befoul the process and also to heap mud on Hill and on all those who have suffered harassment. To delay the vote is to allow the scoundrels who, caring nothing about Hill and her welfare and wishes, sought only to heap mud on Thomas, and to do so irreparably. What kind of investigation can now, in the climate created by the release, be a fair one?

This is especially so because sexual harassment issues of this sort are subtle and complex. Oh, yes, there are the “easy” cases when one side is lying about what happened. But it is perfectly possible for the complainant to be totally truthful about what occurred and for an “objective” third party to conclude that she was unjustified in feeling pressured or harassed. And it is equally possible for the alleged harasser to be totally truthful in his belief that no pressure or harassment was intended or implied, and yet for an “objective” third party to conclude that the situation was redolent with abuse. Indeed, it is often the case that the so-called reasonable third parties will disagree among themselves as to whether abuse was present.

How can such questions be resolved fairly in a context like the one that would be created by allowing delay to those who clearly will stop at nothing to try to defeat Thomas’ nomination. Yet, how can one go forward in the face of such charges when sexually harassment must not be trivialized?