Arlen Specter Invokes Anita Hill “Drama”

Regarding the Attorney General’s former chief of staff Kyle Sampson’s testimony today, the New York Times quoted Senator Specter (R-PA). “I think it will be the most interesting testimony we have heard since Professor Hill,” Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said as he recalled Anita F. Hill’s appearance in the confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas for a Supreme Court seat. “I can’t think of anyone else who has quite the drama.” Why Specter would remind anyone, let alone the entire NYT readership of his role in the character assassination of Anita Hill is a mystery. In 1981, Anita Hill became Clarence Thomas’s assistant at the US Department of Education. She was subpoenaed and reluctantly testified at the Thomas confirmation hearings. She said Thomas had sexually harassed her. About Arlen Specter’s manner when he questioned her, Anita Hill wrote, “Specter began by assuring me that he was simply trying 'to find out what happened.' Nevertheless, in short order, any hope that Senator Specter would transcend the political was dashed. He began his questioning with an unmistakably prosecutorial tone. He used a familiar cross-examination tactic--a tactic common in sexual harassment cases. He ridiculed my reaction to Thomas' behavior, suggesting that I was being oversensitive, even to the point of misrepresenting my testimony.” It is of course possible that Specter is proud of himself for having had a hand in putting the worst and most stupid judge on the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see how Specter will attempt to save Alberto Gonzales job during the Judiciary Committee hearings. Of this, we may be sure, he will not be fair or unbiased. Specter may be many things, but he is a loyal Bushie.