JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination for President?

No. No. No.

A thousand times…”NO.”

Biden might be an affable guy, and he’s endured a tremendous amount of tragedy in his life, having lost a wife and daughter to a car crash and a son to brain cancer, but he does not deserve to carry the Democratic banner against President Donald Trump in 2020.

For me, it all goes back to the 1991 confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

I watched on TV — horrified — as Biden, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, presided over the debacle that ended with him deferring to Missouri Sen. John C. Danforth, Thomas’ sponsor, during the confirmation hearings.

Clarence Thomas with former U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah (left) and Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri in 1991

Biden truncated the hearings and let Thomas’ nomination go to the full Senate, where Thomas was approved 52-48. (Biden voted against confirmation on the Senate floor, but the damage was done in committee.)

So, for the ongoing spectacle of Thomas bumbling along out of his depth on the Supreme Court, we can thank Jack Danforth and Joe Biden.

The former senators — pals from different parties — put collegial deference above injustice to a classy and dignified woman, Anita Hill, who had the courage to go before the cameras and tell the story of Thomas’ outrageous treatment of her when she had worked for him at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Who can ever forget the line he allegedly uttered in her presence: “Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?”

**

In November 2017, Hill, a professor at Brandeis University, sat down at The Washington Post with five current and former Democratic lawmakers who had sided with Hill in 1991.

One of those former lawmakers, Pat Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat, recalled that on the morning of Oct. 11, 1991, she and another of Hill’s allies in the House of Representatives, Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, went to see Biden because they felt the confirmation process was being rushed.

In the 2017 interview, Schroeder said…

We went to see Biden, because we were so frustrated by it. And he literally kind of pointed his finger and said, you don’t understand how important one’s word was in the Senate, that he had given his word to (Danforth) in the men’s gym that this would be a very quick hearing, and he had to get it out before Columbus Day (a few days later).

A specific change Biden made in the proceedings that benefitted Thomas was deciding, at the last minute, to let Thomas testify before Hill. In doing that, Hill said, Biden allowed Thomas “to do a preemptive strike against me.”

In a 1994 New York Times article, columnist Frank Rich called Biden “Mr. Danforth’s all-too-eager tool.”

“The chairman (Biden) rushed the hearings at the Republicans’ request,” Rich wrote, “suppressing crucial evidence and witnesses in the process. As the Hill-Thomas showdown neared, he had top aides tend to his own p.r. rather than prepare for the hearings. But even as Mr. Biden kept ugly testimony about the nominee’s private life off limits at Mr. Danforth’s urging, the chairman applied another standard to Ms. Hill, who was fair game for any character assassin with a hearing-room microphone.”

Rich said that rather than regretting his performance, Biden looked back on it, at least in 1994, as a publicity coup. In a book about the Thomas confirmation, Biden is quoted as saying: “Most voters can’t name their own senator. But now everywhere I go, I get recognized.”

**

Biden has never unequivocally apologized for his treatment of Hill or taken responsibility for it.

A few weeks ago, while laying the groundwork for yesterday’s announcement that he would seek the Democratic nomination, Biden called Hill and expressed “his regret for what she endured” 28 years ago.

In an interview Wednesday with The Times, Hill said…

“I cannot be satisfied by (him) simply saying, ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you.’ I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose.”

Biden had his big chance to match Hill’s courage 28 years ago, when he should have gone to Danforth and told him he had changed his mind and would not rush the confirmation hearings.

So, Joe can go around kissing babies, smelling women’s hair and doing whatever he wants, but he won’t be getting my vote…ever.