Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Sex and the Single Nominee
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Debate Continues, but There's Little Doubt Speculators Are Adding to Pain at the Pumps
Thomas Palley
Democracy and Elections:
Seven Ways Your Vote Might Not Count This November
Steven Rosenfeld
DrugReporter:
'The Dope Craze That's Terrorizing Vancouver'
Lani Russwarm
Election 2008:
An Ex-Beauty Queen for VP: Political Risk or Political Genius?
Heather Gehlert
Environment:
Palin Is a Global-Warming-Denying, Polar-Bear-Dissing, Pat Buchanan Acolyte
Joseph Romm
ForeignPolicy:
Bush Is Pouring Gas on Afghanistan's Bonfire
Chris Hedges
Health and Wellness:
Universal Health Coverage Is No Silver Bullet
Niko Karvounis
Hurricane Katrina:
From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Not Accomplished
Amy Goodman
Immigration:
Immigration: Too Hot for the Dems?
Roberto Lovato
Media and Technology:
How the Media's Tarring of Hillary Hurt Obama Too
Eric Boehlert
Movie Mix:
Hollywood Gets Muslims Wrong, Again
Wajahat Ali
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Americans' Attitudes Toward Breastfeeding Are Making Our Kids Sick
Aisha Qaasim
Rights and Liberties:
Guantánamo Suicide Report: Truth or Travesty?
Andy Worthington
Sex and Relationships:
Yet Another Obscenity Trial? We Should Be Ashamed
Dr. Marty Klein
War on Iraq:
U.S. Forces to Hand Over Anbar Province to Iraqis
Water:
Alaska Chooses Largest Gold Mine Over Clean Water
Kari Lydersen
Why did conservatives, including some on the religious right, successfully put the kibosh on President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers? According to HBO's Bill Maher, it had little to do with whether or not she was a master of constitutional law. And it wasn't about her being the President's best friend, either. It wasn't even related to whether she would overturn Roe v. Wade or set back civil rights for another generation.
Opposition to Miers' nomination may have had more to do with what the Right didn't know about her than what they did. And what they didn't know are details about her sexuality.
"It's not that Harriet Miers' views are a mystery," Maher quipped on Oct. 14, "It's that her genitalia are a mystery." The last time "genitalia" was mentioned in relation to a nominee for Associate Justice to the Supreme Court was during the Clarence Thomas hearing more than a decade ago.
In typical Maher hyperbole, he declared that "there are only three possibilities if you've never married or had kids by 60": Miers is either "an asexual figure ... [who] isn't using the equipment God gave her for making babies," a "practicing lesbian," or "a slut."
In a recent column, Dotty Lynch, senior political editor for CBS News, recently asked: "Why is it that battles for the Supreme Court have become more about sex than about the constitution?" She was referring to Miers' gender, but perhaps her sex life is more the issue.
In 1990, when the unmarried David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court, there were repeated innuendos about homosexuality. Nevertheless, Souter survived, possibly due to the discovery of three former girlfriends around the time of his confirmation hearings. That discovery closed the door on an issue that shouldn't have been opened in the first place.
A year later, when President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court the hearings turned into a "he said, she said" battle over sexual harassment. Because it had all the dignity of an evening at a World Wrestling Entertainment event, the Thomas/Hill hearings -- as they came to be called -- drew large television audiences.
As Bill Press pointed out in a column marking the 10th anniversary of the hearings, the calm and confident Anita Hill "told Senators how her then-boss Thomas exploited and harassed female workers. He told dirty jokes. He graphically described pornographic videos he had rented, including the now-famous 'Long Dong Silver.' Perhaps inspired by 'Long Dong,' he bragged about the size of his own penis. He begged for dates. He even accused Hill of leaving pubic hairs on his can of Coca-Cola."
When it appeared that Hill's testimony might take him down, Thomas' supporters launched a masterful counter-offensive aimed at thoroughly discrediting Hill. Led by then right-wing activist David Brock (now the head of the liberal website, Media Matters), the campaign consisted of an avalanche of lies, disinformation and misinformation, all questioning Hill's character, judgment and capabilities. Hill was embarrassed and Thomas was confirmed. In a March 1992 article in American Spectator, Hill was still under attack; she was labeled a "lesbian acting out" and accused of suffering from "erotomania."
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing groups and movements.
Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »