ProPublica reports that Thomas was in debt, frustrated with his salary, and implying he’d resign from the Supreme Court if his financial situation didn’t change—just before Harlan Crow and other conservatives started lavishing him with expensive gifts and luxury vacations.
Before he began receiving expensive gifts and luxury vacations from Harlan Crow and other conservative benefactors, Clarence Thomas reportedly expressed significant concerns about his financial situation—even prompting concerns from a Republican lawmaker more than 20 years ago that he might resign from the Supreme Court if he could not boost his salary.
“One or more justices will leave soon” if justices aren’t given a raise, Thomas told then Republican Representative Cliff Stearns in 2000, as they flew home from a conservative conference at a Georgia resort, according to ProPublica.
The “rules for thee and not for me” coming out of our politics this last 5-10 years seems to be accelerating. It’s infuriating. When this story broke, I was in the middle of doing my trainings at work. You know the ones you roll your eyes and burn an afternoon doing to get off the naughty list. Clarence must have skipped the ethics training. The whole part of “even the appearance of wrong doing” violates our ethics guidelines. THE APPEARANCE.
You know what would happen if I sold my house to a contractor we were working with, then let my mom move into that house, then this person renovated and remodeled the whole house, but my mom’s rent didn’t go up mind you. Oh, and then I did official business with this person’s company and made official decisions that would/could directly impact that persons business. Oh yea, then not disclose it. You know what the fuck would happen to me?? I’d be investigated by OPR, put on administrative leave immediately, eventually terminated, and probably charged criminally.
Then you have this clown who absolutely knows better. He’s a supreme court justice. You can’t plead ignorance here, Clarence. He just…gets to continue to wipe his ass with the public trust and violate his oath of office and responsibility to the American people.
Odd that red state losers vote for people who make them bigger losers, isn’t it?