European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 13, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A " latest verdict on failed by Frank Rich new York times Ith the recent publication of strange Justice the Selling of Clarence Thomas american blood will come to a new boil Over the most rending Belaid she said conflict of our time. But not necessarily because of this gripping Book s revelations about Anita he and Clarence Thomas. .-.-.-. " ,--." the authors Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson of the Wall Street journal do produce named sources who corroborate Hill s testimony and detail other Inci dents in which a porno fixated Thomas hit on the More vulnerable which is to say Black women in his employ. This is unlikely however to Shock a country where a majority Tell pollsters they already believe that Thomas committed perjury. The real scoops in this meticulously reported Book he elsewhere. Strange Justice uncovers a White House dirty tricks team that masked Thomas extremist ideology and smeared Hill As a psychotic by clandestinely and expensively publicizing fake pers Ortas for both of them. And it depicts a White male Congress so easily cowed by accusations of racism that its members did t even question that organizations mounting an ostensibly grass roots african american Campaign for the nominee had been formed by the White religious right and financed by republicans. In the Book s surprising narrative the iconoclastic Clarence Thomas is no abject villain and Anita Hill is a reluctant witness. Hill s would be protectors on the Senate judiciary committee Edward Kennedy and Howard Metzenbaum Are sleepwalkers and her Nastiest antagonists Orrin Hatch and Alan Simpson Are bit players. Two other senators Central to the tale do not get off so lightly John Danforth the Republican who served As the White House s Point Man and Joseph Biden the democratic judiciary committee chair Man who could have aired most of the evidence in strange Justice three autumns ago but did not Danforth an ordained minister likes to depict himself As god s servant and has written a netbook of his own resurrection about the Thomas hear Ings that May be the most Lach Remose Public display of Sanctimony and guilt by an american Clergyman since Arthur dimm Esdale bared his breast in the Scarlet letter. ".-. Even in the unlikely event that history deems Thomas his protege a great Jurist Danforth still has much to feel guilty about. In strange Justice he makes ruthless efforts to slur Hill with unsubstantiated tales of rogue pubic hairs and to his own aides revulsion spreads psychiatric diagnoses of Ero Tomania that conform neither to Hill s biography nor to that rare condition s symptoms Biden was Danforth s All too eager tool. The chairman rushed the hearings at the republicans request suppressing crucial evidence and witnesses in the process. As the Hill Thomas showdown neared he had top aides tend to his own or rather than prepare for the hearings. But even As Biden kept ugh testimony about the nominee s private life off limits at Danforth s urging the chairman applied another Standard to Hill who was fair game for any character Assassin with a hearing room microphone. What were Biden s motives desperate to be liked by All the senator tried any path of least resistance that might allow Hill s incendiary accusations to die quietly. He still looks Back on his performance As a publicity coup. Most voters can t name their own senator he brags to Mayer and Abramson. But now everywhere i go i get  no other committee member behaved any better most were ill informed and eager to stay that Way lest they attract controversy. Most journalists were equally passive about digging too deeply into a racially and sexually charged Pandora s Box. So now the supreme court is stuck with a bitter Jurist of dubious integrity who lives a lie in even his jurisprudence an anti affirmative action zealot who owes his Job to affirmative action. The whole Story is enough to make you nostalgic for watergate when the press and Congress helped the country Dodge a Bullet. Remember the old catch phrase the system worked ? strange Justice is the definitive proof that this time it did not. Cd artict Page on Tab Batocal. Landslide Andy Rodney Hen i Lncoln was running for the presidency in 1860, it was weeks be fore the voters in some parts of the country found out he d beaten his opponent Stephen Douglas. Things have changed. Now candidates we never heard of weeks ago were elected and we found out they won before All the votes were in. Ronald Reagan got the most votes Ever cast for a president 54 million. Women running for office weren t any nicer to their opponents than men. Some of the things women candidates said about their opponents did t sound very Ladylike. Of course the word Ladylike is out of Date. I know that. Saying terrible things about an opponent whether you re a Man or a woman never seems to help any one get elected. I Don t know what does help someone get elected. I be never voted for a candidate because of an and i saw for him or her on television or in the newspaper and i be certainly never been won Over listening to a candidate make a Campaign speech. More often than not people seem to vote for the candidate they Dis like the least. It s strange to see someone who was once your Boss involved in a political race. Van Gordon Sauter and David Burke were both my Boss when each was president of lbs news. Burke is the one who sus Pended me. He got fired. Sauter is the husband of Kathleen Brown who ran for governor of California and Burke was sen. Ted Kennedy s constant companion on the Campaign Trail. Neither of them Calls to ask How i am. It seemed wrong for the people of Washington to re elect Marion Barry after his release from prison but you have to admit some bad Guys have been Good mayors. And of course some Good Guys have been bad mayors. This fact is not reason enough to elect a bad Guy. I d vote for any candidate who said he was going to raise taxes not because i like taxes but because i like an honest candidate. When iwas too Young to read the newspapers we had a mayor of Albany n.y., who was killed when he fell out of a convertible while on vacation in Miami. Or at least that s my memory of it. When i read about a candidate who is spending $2 million of his own Money trying to get elected i Fig ure he thinks hell be Able to get it Back once he s in office. It can t be too Long before we have a More modern system for registering our votes than stepping into a Booth set up in a gymnasium where we pull a Shower curtain closed behind us. Tribune Media services Andy Rooney la a former stars and Stripe reporter. November 13,1994 sunday Page 9