Most definitely not what Ginni Thomas hoped would happen when she called Anita Hill seeking an apology: Now that the story's gone national, the Washington Post talks to a woman who dated Clarence Thomas in the 1980s and says the lewd behavior alleged by Hill didn't surprise her. "The Clarence I know was certainly capable not only of doing the things that Anita Hill said he did, but it would be totally consistent with the way he lived his personal life then," says Lillian McEwen, a former Senate judiciary panel lawyer.
McEwen, who's writing her own memoir, also tells the Post she's not surprised that Thomas's wife placed the call to Hill. "He is married to a woman who is loyal to him and religious in a way he would like to be. This combination of religiosity and loyalty and belief that he is really the kind of person who he describes in his book would just about compel her to do something like that." The newspaper lists other such calls Ginni Thomas has made to reporters and the like when they've written about people with sullied reputations.
(More Clarence Thomas stories.)