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A Window Into The Life Of Justice Clarence Thomas

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By HAROLD JACKSON

Published: November 19, 2007

Clarence Thomas' memoir, "My Grandfather's Son," is a must-read for anyone trying to figure out the U.S. Supreme Court justice.

But not because it restates the case he made against Anita Hill, who during his Senate confirmation hearings 16 years ago accused the man who would become the court's sole black justice of sexual harassment.

More interesting is Thomas' admission that he was a drunken, debt-ridden deadbeat who ran out on his wife and child and doubted the existence of God even as he was being promoted by family-values Republicans.

Now, if that's not affirmative action, what is?

The former Catholic altar boy said he lost his faith while a seminarian, deciding he couldn't be a priest in a church that he felt was unconscionably silent on the treatment of blacks.

After graduating from College in Worcester, Mass., he got married, but from their wedding day onward, Thomas questioned whether he really loved his bride.

"Kathy was a good wife and mother, but I had nothing to offer her other than the mere desire to be an equally good husband," Thomas said. "It was an impossible situation, and like so many people who find themselves in such situations, I sought comfort in the bottle."

He left his wife in 1980, for a while sleeping on the living-room floor of his good friend Gil Hardy. He became assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education in 1981, and, at Hardy's request, hired Anita Hill.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. So, Thomas was footloose and drinking heavily. How does he even know he never said anything inappropriate to Hill?

Thomas points out that whatever he said to Hill didn't keep her from following him when Reagan named him to head the EEOC in 1982.

In 1987, Thomas married a white woman, Virginia Lamp, a lobbyist.

Thomas leaned on Virginia during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. He also found religion, again.

"I recalled one of Daddy's sayings: 'Hard times make a monkey eat cayenne pepper.' Now, with Virginia at my side, I ate the pepper of faith - and found it sweet," Thomas said.

Indeed. But the story reminds me of what my church pastor calls "cafeteria Christians," who seek God only when they want something.

I don't know whether Thomas' rediscovered faith goes beyond asking God for favors. He ends his memoir after he gets what he wanted.

Harold Jackson is editorial page editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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