Acting White: Vengeful Thomas Gets Rejected By Court

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked his fellow jurists to stand behind his grudge match with Obama, regarding the president-elect's citizenship, and they promptly batted his flatted-footed, no-spin, no-arc, no-chance-in-hell shot into the nose-bleed seats. This is a man who likes humiliation.

Now I understand if Thomas is not excited about Obama's win, as they are ideological opposites. I also understand that it stung Thomas to have Obama tell the world, during the election, that as a jurist Clarence did not have the 'game' to sit on the high court. But hey, with Harvard Law, Law Review, Constitution scholar-chops on his resume, Obama has as qualified an opinion as we are going to find among politicians. Perhaps it is the weight behind Obama's jabs that motivated this flailing. Regardless, Thomas needs to retake his seat and go back to being seen, and not heard.

If ever there was a man who did not know how declare victory (18 years ago) and move on, it is Thomas. He has proved his GHWBush AA appointee status time and time again, by his inability to distinguish himself, and he knows it. In all his years on the court he has gained neither the respect of his adversaries nor his fellow conservative justices. At best, he is tolerated as water-boy for the far right (stare decisis). Sitting mute, day after day, he has only cemented himself as the worse-case scenario of affirmative action - where an undeserving person is arbitrarily gifted a tenured position. He lets the others do the heavy lifting. Having a voice and getting challenged is part of the job Clarence, for god sakes! I suspect he fears being embarrassed in public, and he is probably right. It's that unscripted legal banter that threatens, to this day, to expose Thomas as a legal lightweight. Recall how well Sara Palin was considered until she actually spoke in public without a script.

Yet again, with this latest ill-advised move against Obama, Thomas has opened himself to disdain, open-faced and hidden, from all quarters.

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Acting White: Vengeful Thomas Gets Rejected By Court, Obama, Clarence Thomas, Citizenship, Election, Acting White