The wife of Justice Clarence Thomas is a Tea Party activist. Together, they’re the right’s new power couple. 'It’s like a Hollywood movie. One spouse goes off to work at the Supreme Court, that most august of institutions, where formality and discretion reign. The other puts on her power suit—and occasionally, a foam Lady Liberty crown—and enters the raucous, chaotic world of Tea Party politics and Fox News pontificating.''A lawyer, former staffer for the Republican congressman Dick Armey, and a former director at the Heritage Foundation, she speaks of herself as a bridge between the Republican establishment and the crowds rallying out of anger and frustration.'
'Ever since
Ginni Thomas launched
Liberty Central with $550,000 in November 2009, she has become a rising star in the constellation of conservative pundits.'
'Wearing a TV-red jacket, Thomas bantered with Hannity about the “tyranny” President Barack Obama and his party are inflicting on the country. Then Thomas, who had recently launched a nonprofit called Liberty Central, sounded a dire warning. “We are in a fight for our country’s life,” she said. “We’ve all got to do whatever we can.” Channeling Tea Party rhetoric, she called on conservative voters to give money, sign petitions, and, in November, overthrow those who are turning “citizens” into “subjects.”'
'As Thomas put it at the
recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, "I have come to know and love the Tea Party Patriots. It has been a privilege to become a bit of an ambassador of sorts for the National Board."'
'Her overt disgust with Obama and Liberty’s political tone have caused some on the
left to wonder whether her new job puts her in conflict with her husband’s claims to impartiality.'
'“I may not agree with Ginni Thomas on any policy issue, but what she’s doing seems—if I can’t say utterly commendable one could certainly say utterly proper in a democracy,” says David Garrow, a historian at Cambridge University. Ginni Thomas is not litigating cases that might end up before the court, nor is she covering the court for a newspaper. This is no big deal, agrees Tom Goldstein, publisher of SCOTUSblog: married couples often have two big jobs between them. “This is a really ironic place for liberals to be,” he says. “They’re giving the impression that a woman can’t have her own
independent standing.”
posted by clavdivs at 8:21 AM on October 12, 2010