It’s pretty disgusting, but nothing’s beyond what a Republican does these days.An article trying to say it was OK for conservative Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas to receive gifts from people who had business in front of the court, but then goes on to decry how awful it was that the Clintons received gifts from god and everybody. It’s digusting if there’s impropriety on either side of the aisle, but only a Republican would say that it was OK for another Republican to get gifts and special treatment, but the “Liberal” should be struck down.
Article archived here
4:41 pm PT, Wednesday, Jan 5, 2005
Oregon Liberal Newspaper Editors Attack US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
By Dennis M. Becklin
Publisher / SouthernOregonNews.com
Medford, Oregon – The hypocrisy of the Eugene, Oregon, Register Guard’s editorial about gifts received by US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas makes this the most obnoxious article on this subject yet for an Oregon newsrag editorialist.
As a subscriber to the Register Guard, if the only part of this editorial you read was the headline, you’d swear that Justice Thomas was on the take. That’s the obvious spin.
But, what a bunch of politically spun baloney.
From 1998 through 2003, Thomas received, and reported, a total of $42,200 in gifts from various sources.
Included in the $42,200 was a bible appraised for $19,000 and a bust of Abraham Lincoln appraised for $15,000…a total of $34,000 for these two items.
Over a period of five years, Thomas, therefore accepted other gifts totaling $8,200…except for the bible and the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Now that must be truly shocking to any led-by-the-nose reader of the Register Guard who is still in political rehab following the 2004 general election, an election that empowered a conservative republican US President to nominate US justices, including US Supreme Court justices, for four more years.
So what do the Register Guard editorialists possibly hypothesize that Justice Thomas might do with the bible and the statue…cash them out by selling them on eBay, or exchange them for wine, women and song?
What a joke it is to complain about a gifted bible or a statue of America’s great emancipator, especially on the basis of appraised values that were doubtless calculated to enhance the tax deductible value of the gifts to the donors. Donors do that all the time…just ask any local charity that’s put on a fund raising auction recently in your home town.
The Register Guard was really quick to jump on the attack bandwagon of liberals who are looking for any possible way to derail Clarence Thomas’ possible nomination as the next Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Oh, no, anyone but Clarence Thomas….except, of course, we wouldn’t want any other conservative to be appointed to a US Federal judgeship, either…
January 5, 2005 – The Eugene Register Guard – Editorial – Gifts come with strings: Thomas leads court in accepting freebies
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/05/ed.edit.thomas.0105.html
The really obnoxious part about the latest attack on Clarence Thomas is the failure of the Register Guard’s anonymous editorial board to mention the truly massive gift scandal of the recent boy-girl co-presidency of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Now we’re really talking about a gravy gift train.
The Clintons’ accepted massive volumes of stuff from admirers…some like Marc Rich even managed to get presidential pardons. Now that’s impressive.
January 26, 2001 – BBC News – Clinton gifts under scrutiny –
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1137905.stm
If you want to take a look at the litany of news article on the subject of the Clintons’ gift bonanza, and associated articles about linkage to presidential pardons for folks like Marc Rich, who is now being investigated for his possible role in the UN’s $-multi-billion Oil-for-Food graftola project, try this Google search.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=clintons+took+gifts
Hey, I don’t have any beef with the Register Guard’s anonymous editorialists expressing their biased opinions about Judge Thomas. I just think the readers of the Register Guard should make a balanced examination of this type of politically motivated bunk before they decide to send anti-Thomas mail to their US Senators.
Dennis M. Becklin, Publisher
SouthernOregonNews LLC
www.GrantsPassNews.com
www.MedfordNews.com
www.NewsAshland.com
Contact info: Dennis M. Becklin may be reached at dennis@southernoregonnews.com.