1991 Called And It Wants An Apology
"I did place a call to Ms. Hill at her office extending an olive branch to her after all these years, in hopes that we could ultimately get passed what happened so long ago. That offer still stands, I would be very happy to meet and talk with her if she would be willing to do the same. Certainly no offense was ever intended."
—Virginia Thomas, right-wing activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, explains why she left a message on Anita Hill's voicemail asking the Brandeis University professor to "consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband." In 1991, during Thomas' confirmation hearings, Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her when she worked under him at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill refused to apologize and stands by her statements.
Wow, Ginni sure is a champeen grudge-holder. Also an early morning drinker.
(psst…ABC News or maybe Ginni if emailed? It’s ‘past’ not ‘passed’.)
@Titty: Great minds. I asked not an hour ago whether Ginny is a secret tippler. Consensus points to YES. And I am SO OVER people who encourage others to pray on or about anything.
The more I think about this, the more it pisses me off. What a bitch.
HI NEW AWL.
yeah I don't know about this Splitsidery new thing. EDIT FUNCTION WHAT
Someone's batshit crazy in this story, and it ain't Anita Hill.
I, too, am ready to hear that full explanation again. Let's all have a Coke and a smile.
Meet you at Long Dong Silver's!
Maybe all of those people should have been apologizing to Dave Bry all along?
Where's my 'housekeeping' post? I keep bumping into the rearranged furniture and stepping on Cho's damn Matchbox cars.
Don't delete this comment, or else this reply won't make a damn bit of sense.
I believe Miss Manners would advise a different approach if one's intention is to extend an "olive branch" in social intercourse.
Not so much an olive branch in this case, as a withered stick of ragweed.
Yeah you're supposed to gently extend the olive branch, not flail it around like a club.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Perhaps you should apologize to me.
- Ginni Thomas
Yes. And I'm gonna stop checking PassiveAggressiveNotes.com, because nothing will ever be more amazingly, self-destructively passive-aggressive than this voicemail and the follow-up statement to the press.
At this point, I think we’ve got 4 competing explanations for the voicemail:
1. Nutter
2. Tippler
3. Trying to “clear the air” before pushing Clarence into running for elected office (I think this is the scary option) and
4. Trying to rewrite the obituaries before Clarence’s impending death (the ever-optimistic Mrs. Depressive came up with this option).
What am I missing?
Where do I contribute to the Clarence Thomas Campaign Committee, the one that stands him for elected office and gets his fat, no-questions rear end off a lifetime appointment to the SC during the Obama Administration?
5. Hypnosis
6. side-effect of medication interactions
7. got to the end of The Sense of the Past and flipped out when she realized it was unfinished
I like the way Mrs. Depressive thinks!
I'm to sunny for option 4, and there's no way that lady is reading Henry James, even with her passive-aggressive reflexes. But I think 6 has potential. "Oh, dearie, I just happened to get my [government-paid] meds crossed up."
I hope he does run for office. I would be glad to vote against him.
I'm voting for some combination of 1) and 2)
Is anyone else in major HMMMM??-mode over the apparent choice of words: "Why you did what you did with my husband?"
I mean. Hmm?
That's one provocative preposition. And "why you did what you did" twice in as many sentences? Vague and repetitive!
Yeah, I got a whiff of vengeful jealousy too. Not a pretty smell.
Very first thing I thought. Because you know, she did totally do being-revoltingly-and-unwelcomely-propositioned "with" the guy.
This sounds like old dirty laundry at the family dinner table, bh. One wonders what kind of spinning Clarence offered up there. And why it's come up again, now.
Or, maybe she's just having trouble finding him.
I always imagined Clarence Thomas's behavior at the dinner table was just like his bench demeanor: silent, scowly, and just conscious enough to convey a thinly veiled contempt for whoever was sitting across from him.
@boy: if that's the case, I don't blame Ginni at all for drinking heavily.
SERIFS DAMN YOU WHERE DID YOU TAKE MY SERIFS
This font looks awful on my crappy work computer.
"To this day I don't understand why you so rudely turned down our proposal for a threesome, after I spent all of that time micro-engraving it on the side of that pubic hair on your Coke can."
I like that she called Hill's office at 7:30am on a Saturday, just to be extra-sure of not speaking directly to her. Next time, Ginni, try leaving her the world's most passive-agressive note like the vicious, crushingly-low-self-esteemed college roommate you still are.
Joan Kennedy's still drunk dialing Mary Jo Kopechne to give her one last chance to make things up to Ted.
Meanwhile, Brandeis campus police and the FBI sigh in unison, wondering if Clarence Thomas can be pursuaded to keep his wife and their liquor cabinet locked up after dark.
Meanwhile, most of the students at Brandeis were born after this whole mess happened. (I'M SO OLD)
If anyone from 1991 needs to still apologize, it's Scott Norwood.
I was so not prepared to wake up to New Awl today. So confused.
WE CAN EDIT COMMENTS NOW?? Wait, time just ran out. Nevermind.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2010/10/20/good-morning-ginny-thomas.aspx
What he said…