More Like a Cactus Branch

According to news reports, Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, left a voice mail for Anita Hill this morning asking her to apologize for her allegations in 1991. In interviews today, Mrs. Thomas said she viewed the gesture as offering an olive branch.

My take on the story in 1991 was that Clarence Thomas had a great sense of humor and a terrible sense of when it is appropriate, and that Anita Hill had no sense of humor at all.

I haven’t seen much evidence of a sense of humor coming out of Justice Thomas’s chambers in the past 19 years, but given how it backfired on him so spectacularly last time, he either has learned to keep it in check, or else only hired people who can laugh at the Rabelesque.

I still don’t think Anita Hill, who appears to have many excellent qualities, has a sense of humor, or else she would have put the phone call on YouTube for people to remix.