Bradley in DC
10-15-2007, 06:58 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101400959.html?wpisrc=newsletter
A Justice's Goals
Monday, October 15, 2007; Page A15
Sixteen years after his Supreme Court confirmation hearings riveted the nation, many still see Clarence Thomas as a polarizing figure. But while discussing his memoir last week with Newsweek-The Post's Lally Weymouth, Thomas stressed that he sees himself as a federal judge -- not an ideologue. Excerpts:
Have you moved intellectually to the right?
No, I never moved toward the right. I was a libertarian. What I wanted more than anything else was not to be in a box. People try to put me in one. They have become very comfortable with that when it comes to blacks. We're all supposed to be liberals, Democrats and believe in affirmative action. I'm just like everybody else. I'm complicated; I think things through. I assume people will say that I am conservative. But the reason I wrote the book about my grandfather is that my views are consistent with his.
Which means?
To the extent that I am conservative -- I am conserving what they gave me. I made a decision to align myself with the Republican Party years ago. I am not a Republican now. I am a federal judge and have been for almost 20 years. And I take that enormously . . . seriously. It is really important to me to do this job right, regardless of what anybody else says. President George Herbert Walker Bush asked me: Can you call them as you see them if you get on the court? That's all the man exacted from me.
A Justice's Goals
Monday, October 15, 2007; Page A15
Sixteen years after his Supreme Court confirmation hearings riveted the nation, many still see Clarence Thomas as a polarizing figure. But while discussing his memoir last week with Newsweek-The Post's Lally Weymouth, Thomas stressed that he sees himself as a federal judge -- not an ideologue. Excerpts:
Have you moved intellectually to the right?
No, I never moved toward the right. I was a libertarian. What I wanted more than anything else was not to be in a box. People try to put me in one. They have become very comfortable with that when it comes to blacks. We're all supposed to be liberals, Democrats and believe in affirmative action. I'm just like everybody else. I'm complicated; I think things through. I assume people will say that I am conservative. But the reason I wrote the book about my grandfather is that my views are consistent with his.
Which means?
To the extent that I am conservative -- I am conserving what they gave me. I made a decision to align myself with the Republican Party years ago. I am not a Republican now. I am a federal judge and have been for almost 20 years. And I take that enormously . . . seriously. It is really important to me to do this job right, regardless of what anybody else says. President George Herbert Walker Bush asked me: Can you call them as you see them if you get on the court? That's all the man exacted from me.