Ginni and Clarence

drummerboy

Mar 25, 2022 at 7:21am

As we patiently wait for Clarence's health issue to resolve, one way or, ahem, another, news comes out that Ginni exchanged texts with Mark Meadows urging him to get the coup moving. She even called for the Kraken.

Liberal twitter is all agog over this, as they should be, but they're not getting the story quite right. Most of them are saying that in the recent SCOTUS case over Trump giving up his records, Clarence was trying to prevent these texts from being released. His was the lone vote in Trump's favor. Consequently he should have recused, and now he should be impeached for a Ginni cover-up.

Problem is, the texts are from docs voluntarily released by Mark Meadows prior to the SCOTUS case. The case had nothing to do with them. (not to say there might not be other Ginni related material in the docs affected by the case. We just don't know at this point.)

So today's twitter mob is mostly wrong, technically.

Personally, given the known activities of Ginni (before the texts were revealed), Clarence should have recused himself anyway, but I'm not so sure about impeaching him for this. The fact is that SCOTUS has no code of ethics and the rules for recusals are weak. Even such as they are though, a familial interest in the case warrants recusal.

Apart from the Clarence issues, clearly the J6 committee should subpoena Ginni. I think the odds of that happening are about zero.

But those texts! Boy, is she a nut case.

(of course, I'm talking about impeaching him knowing full well that the actual chances of that are about zero too.)

nohero

Mar 25, 2022 at 7:52am

The texts show that "normal", "respectable" Republicans in Washington discuss insane conspiracy theories as if they're facts. That's the scariest part.

nohero

Mar 25, 2022 at 9:34am

We're seeing the dark underside of "mainstream" GOP discourse.

A Supreme Court Justice’s wife suggested that the duly elected President of the United States, his allies, and prominent journalists be sent to Gitmo.

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/AS0BZhsS1v
— STRIKE PAC (@StrikePac) March 25, 2022

drummerboy

Mar 26, 2022 at 6:54am

a good article on Ginni

very prescient, given that it's from 1991

Her critics see her as more than just the supportive spouse who'll
accompany her husband, Clarence, today as he begins Senate confirmation
hearings. They see a woman with strong opinions on issues that are bound
to come before the court. They find in her further grounds for opposing
him.

Yup, the reporter nailed that one. Unfortunately she's had a 30-year free ride since.

Jaytee

Mar 26, 2022 at 7:18am

I’m thinking that if “originalism” is so big with these republicans, they might be challenged to follow what was originally intended with the second amendment. If they want to go back to conditions at the time of the writing of the Constitution, well, Justice Thomas might have to figure out what plantation he has to go back to, and who his owners are.…maybe Ginni already has the whip hanging on the bedroom door.

sprout

Mar 26, 2022 at 9:53am Edited

I have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal through my work, and I know it tilts quite hard to the right. But I still found the Editorial Board's dismissal of any concerns around these texts astonishing. Here's a snippet:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ginni-thomas-texts-washington-post-jan-6-committee-mark-meadows-clarence-thomas-11648243651?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

The leak may have been an act of revenge against Mrs. Thomas for signing a letter from conservative activists in December 2021 that objected to the creation of the Jan. 6 committee and called on the House GOP to expel committee members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from their conference.

The leak’s timing suggests another purpose is to damage Justice Thomas as the Supreme Court is preparing to hand down major decisions on gun and abortion rights. And sure enough, the served-up Woodward scoop was followed by demands that Justice Thomas resign, or at least recuse himself from cases involving the election.

He is supposedly implicated in his wife’s messages because he was the sole Justice to dissent from a Jan. 19 Supreme Court decision that President Trump couldn’t block the National Archives from giving the select committee documents from his time in the White House. But the Woodward story says the select committee received the messages from Mr. Meadows, not the National Archives.

Mrs. Thomas’s text messages are embarrassing but amount to an outsider kibitzing and commiserating with the White House chief of staff. They are no reason for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the Trump Administration.

The Jan. 6 committee advertises itself as a fact-finding body without a partisan purpose. But then it should wait to issue its report when its facts are complete. The Ginni Thomas leaks are a political sideswipe that will make its conclusions harder to credit.

What I also found surprising is that they used her nickname, Ginni, multiple times, and never even indicated her full first name of "Virginia". It's like a friend of hers wrote it, or something.

STANV

Mar 26, 2022 at 5:51pm

sprout said:

Mrs. Thomas’s text messages are embarrassing but amount to an outsider kibitzing and commiserating with the White House chief of staff. They are no reason for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the Trump Administration.

As Nohero pointed out this was not just kibitzing and commiserating. She joined in an effort to overturn the election. If she believes what she said she is nuts. If she doesn't really believe it she's a criminal.

drummerboy

Mar 26, 2022 at 5:54pm

STANV said:

sprout said:

Mrs. Thomas’s text messages are embarrassing but amount to an outsider kibitzing and commiserating with the White House chief of staff. They are no reason for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the Trump Administration.

As Nohero pointed out this was not just kibitzing and commiserating. She joined in an effort to overturn the election. If she believes what she said she is nuts. If she doesn't really believe it she's a criminal.

just to be clear, the kibitzing quote came from the WSJ, not sprout.