Crime and punishment. Poor Clarence

Digby discusses the continued blind anger displayed by Clarence Thomas in his new book and shows that his greatest impact on America will not be his Black conservatism, but his exposure of how very widespread sexual harassment was in the workplace.

This arch conservative, anti-feminist unwittingly and against his will may have done more to advance the cause of women's rights in the workplace than anyone else on the Supreme Court today. His greatest legacy will be that his inappropriate behavior woke up the nation to the issue of sexual harassment. And perhaps that explains why he is still so bitter and angry. That's the last legacy he would have ever chosen.

Digby's right.

Before the Thomas hearings I was vaguely aware of the nastiness of what we now call 'sexual harassment.' I didn't participate, but I didn't do anything to stop it, either. It was just something that 'was,' and always had been that way. But the Thomas hearings were like 9/11. They changed everything. Sexual harassment in the workplace became high profile and has remained so ever since.

The only thing I had gotten out of Clarence Thomas' book was that Thomas is a sad, sick, twisted human being who was angry before the hearings, felt that he was being treated badly during the hearings, has no clue what really was going on in the hearings (since he can't see any one's pain or discomfort except his own) and is unable to learn from what happened to him.

Oh, and like all conservatives, Thomas does not now and never has had a bit of empathy for any other person.

Clarence Thomas must be really, really irritated, even angered, to find that he made a major contribution to freeing women from sexual harassment in the workplace . His irritation and anger is strange justice. It is his just punishment for being an angry self-centered conservative with no empathy for anyone outside himself. If he were a decent person, the exact same outcome of his behavior could by considered a real accomplishment and contribution to the betterment of others.

The punishment truly fits the crime, and it is playing out on a national stage in front of everyone which must make it much worse. Only Clarence Thomas' flaws as a human being make it a punishment, and for him to learn from it, grow and become a better person would free him from it.