Newsmax reports that while appearing on CNN’s “Crossfire” program, Eleanor Smeal called for new hearings about whether or not Clarence Thomas sexually harassed Anita Hill. Smeal said,
I think that there should be a hearing. Not only do I think there should be a hearing, I think that we can get to the bottom of it. … Why don’t you bring it before a Senate judiciary committee. …
The call for new hearings comes after David Brock, who wrote The Real Anita Hill which slammed Hill, now claims that he not only lied in his book, but also went so far as to intimidate and threaten potential witnesses who would have confirmed parts of Hill’s story. Regardless of what else one thinks of the Hill/Thomas matter, it is hardly surprising that Brock may have lied in his book since his book was such an obvious hatchet job; it was Brock after all, who infamously described Hill as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.”
But Smeal’s call for new hearings is ridiculous, since there is essentially no new information in Brock’s account (except for additional confirmation that Brock is a liar and lousy journalist). Kaye Savage, a friend of Thomas’s, claimed that she stopped by his bachelor’s apartment only to find centerfolds from “Playboy” on the walls of the apartment. Brock portrayed Savage as unreliable in his book and claims he tried to intimidate her with information that he claims was given to him by a friend of Thomas, Mark Paoletta. Paoletta denies that he ever gave any information, damaging or otherwise, to Brock, and of the two men, only Brock has made a career out of confessing to lies.
Ironically, feminists such as Smeal have already provided a ready defense for supporters of Thomas — the worst that can be said about Thomas is that while under oath he might have lied about his sex life. But as feminists reminded us constantly just a couple years ago, that’s hardly a real crime.
Source:
Feminist Who Shunned Juanita Wants New Hearings for Anita. Newsmax, June 29, 2001.