rssThe Ginni Thomas ‘Controversy’
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 8:30 am
- 14 Comments
I’m a little surprised to read exposes of how Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has launched a Tea Party group, Liberty Central. After all, I reported on Liberty Central back on Feb. 24. When The Washington Post reports that “it was not until this past weekend, after a story in the Los Angeles Times, that awareness of the new organization prompted a debate about the involvement of a justice’s spouse in a political movement,” well, that hurts my feelings.
For what it’s worth, I don’t see any controversy in Ginni Thomas’s new venture. She was a political activist in the 1990s; she was an activist in the Bush years; she’s an activist now. I see this as the latest data point in the Tea Party’s alliance with the old-line conservative establishment. Tea Partiers are picking and choosing which conservatives they want to validate, and I’ve never heard them criticize the likes of Justice Thomas. Ginni Thomas, too, is close to activists taken very seriously by Tea Partiers, like Mark Levin. But stuff like this should really settle the question of “Tea Partiers — conservative movement or rising force of angry independents?”
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14 Comments
Comment posted March 16, 2010 @ 12:52 pm
Heh, I hope you're used to “getting your feelings hurt”, Mr. Weigel.
Over the weekend, I saw local DC news radio station WTOP report as 'breaking' or 'exclusive', the one-day old story that the Pentagon shooter's gun came from the Nashville TN police department's cache of seized weapons.
If it is any consolation – and as I'm sure you know – the internet permits the big news orgs to be busted on this story thieving they've been doing since… well, what seems like forever. Between sites like this and associated alerting tools (e.g., Twitter), you're more likely to get credit that you once wouldn't have stood a chance of getting.
And, good observation (again) on the nature of the Tea Party movement, to the extent it has a single nature. I'm not one of their fans, but that movement seems to rightfully belong to the Ron Paul folks, or at least it once did. They either need to take back the franchise, or move on and establish some new turf; I have no idea which path would be the best practical move for them, but I imagine they've been pondering that on their own.
Comment posted March 16, 2010 @ 4:58 pm
She was a political activist in the 1990s; she was an activist in the Bush years; she’s an activist now.
Runs in the family…
Comment posted March 17, 2010 @ 9:44 am
Let me tell you what I see as a problem in this. She has started a non-profit that has no requirement to disclose who their contributors are. She can be involved in the political process- they plan on grading candidates- she can have a great deal of money behind her- and we have no idea where it is from. If you think a wife has no influence on her husband, you have another think coming. She will have her husbands ear every night while being fueled with money from God only knows what sources all the while he will be sitting in judgement on many matters judicial. It has a bad smell to it. If she want to prove everything is on the up and up she should post all donors names and amount donated. Then we will know if her husband should recuse himself from matters before the court.
Comment posted March 18, 2010 @ 5:35 pm
Thomas, in Citizens United, wanted to invalidate disclosure provisions in the law. Makes perfect sense, now.
Comment posted May 23, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
Nobody pulled his/her hair over Mary Matalin's husband: James Carville. That was OK for double-face liberals.
Comment posted May 24, 2010 @ 12:33 am
Did I miss something? Was James Carville appointed to the Supreme Court while I was napping?
Comment posted July 2, 2010 @ 6:11 am
If it is any consolation – and as I'm sure you know – the internet permits the big news orgs to be busted on this story thieving they've been doing since… well, what seems like forever. Between sites like this and associated alerting tools (e.g., Twitter), you're more likely to get credit that you once wouldn't have stood a chance of getting.
Comment posted August 3, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
I agreed with your point of view. Thanks for sharing.
Comment posted August 29, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
Nobody pulled his/her hair over Mary Matalin's husband: James Carville. That was OK for double-face liberals.
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