Now-gone Senate Orrin Hatch was known for covering up sexually-related inappropriate conduct of those whom he politically supported.

One, in particular, comes to mind: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

I know this because Hatch told me about it.

During the course of a private conversation I had with Hatch, he admitted that in the midst of the contentious confirmation hearings for then-high Court nominee Clarence Thomas, he (Hatch) was aware that Thomas had "a problem with pornography" while Thomas was a student at Yale.

Thomas' alleged sexual misbehavior became a boiling point of controversy due to under-oath claims made by Anita Hill that Thomas had sexually harassed her when she worked as a staffer for him at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hill, among other allegations, claimed that Thomas was obsessed with the size of women's breasts and had, among other things, made offensive comments about them to her.

Hatch admitted to me that he and his fellow supporters of Thomas on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not make a public issue of Thomas' involvement with college-era pornography because Thomas' "problem" had occurred "a long time ago."

Move along. Nothing to see here. Case closed.

At least Brother Orrin said so
_____

by Steve Benson

it affects their public and professional life and/or the people around them -- which it did in the cases of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.


At least there's been some change. An Air Force general officer was recently found guilty of sexual misconduct with his brother's wife. This wasn't hushed up as it would have been in the past. Instead of retirement, soon-to-be ex-major general William Cooley faces prison:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/23/first-ever-us-air-force-trial-of-a-general-finds-william-cooley-guilty-of-sexual-misconduct

In a recent NPR story, aging U.S. Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg recounted how the supporters of Clarence Thomas went after her when she became the first reporter to air the charges Anita Hill made against Clarence Thomas. They were very angry with her for airing the story because they wanted to make Mr. Thomas become a shoe-in. While the most venomous attacks on Ms. Totenberg's reporting came from then-Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, Orin Hatch was not far behind.

It seems that the church Mr. Hatch grew up believing in taught him that loyalty was more important than honesty.

Anything and everything was more important to Orrin than honesty.

Glad to be of service ; ' )

Disgusting.

We’re talking about Thomas.

Both are from me. I need to maybe update my RfM connection so that I don't have to log in each time with a new code.

. . . and others.

Got this text on FB recently:

“Steve Benson

“My husband did some work with another attorney who had been at the EEOC with Thomas. That Atty told him that he was set to testify against Thomas at the hearings but his testimony was called off.

“A deal had been struck between the Rs and Ds: to drop investigations into the Keating 5 scandal, in which McCain and four others, all Dems, had been accused of accepting money from Charles Keating to let off pressure on regulating Savings and Loans (Keating’s major scam for which he spent time in prison.) Keating Five -- Sens. McCain, Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), John Glenn (D-Ohio), Don Riegle (D-Mich.) and Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.).

“So, Long Dong Silver’s “high tech lynching” (Clarence Thomas’ accusation)was called off in exchange for dropping further inquiry into the Keating 5 scandal, to protect the Senators’ illustrious careers; Anita Hill was collateral damage.
Side note: my late Fr. In law, Judge [namedeleted], called Keating out for dishonesty first time he heard him
him speak at Civitan.”