In the late 1960s Abe Fortas a man of no small accomplishment (as a lawyer Gideon v. Wainright as a justice Epperson v. Arkansas) was forced to resign from the Supreme Court when a millionaire began paying Fortas $20,000 a year for advice. An action which was legal, but shameful enough for him to step down in shame.
Enter Clarence Thomas.
Mr. Crow has done many favors for the justice and his wife, Virginia, helping finance a Savannah library project dedicated to Justice Thomas, presenting him with a Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass and reportedly providing $500,000 for Ms. Thomas to start a Tea Party-related group...
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
But, if there's one thing we've learned about Clarence Thomas it is that he is in no way affected with a sense of personal shame...just grievances.
The person who was until just recently leading the call to investigate Thomas' ethical shortcomings? Anthony Weiner.
Somewhere Hannah Arendt is missing the banality of it all.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]