As Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas on Wednesday girded for a do-or- die Senate hearing to investigate charges of sexual harassment, backers admitted-and a public poll showed-that support for him was eroding.
President Bush gave him a vote of confidence, but for Thomas to advance to the nation`s highest court, he must use Friday`s hearing to reassure senators whose support wavered after they learned of charges by a University of Oklahoma law professor that he had harassed her while she was his subordinate.
Adding to the pressure on Thomas to prove his case is the last few days`
groundswell of public opinion that the male-dominated Senate paid too little attention to the allegations in its original hearings last month.
If Thomas falters in his defense, it would give senators-especially Democrats-a politically safe reason to reject the black judge`s nomination.
The professor, Anita Hill, also will testify at the hearing and will be asked to detail her account, raising the possibility that testimony could turn not only bitter, but sordid.
Their appearances before the 14-member Senate Judiciary Committee will be broadcast live on television and radio.
While the hearing is not a trial and there will be no verdict of guilty or innocent, it will determine Thomas` suitability for the Supreme Court.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday showed eroding public support for Thomas, with 50 percent supporting his confirmation now, compared to 63 percent three weeks ago.
Sixty-three percent of those polled said that if the charges are substantiated, it would be enough of a reason for the Senate to reject his nomination. Thirty-one percent said it would not be.
Some groups supporting Thomas acknowledged that his nomination was in serious trouble, and there was frustration among conservatives that Bush has not defended the nominee more aggressively.
”Sure, there`s disappointment,” said Thomas Jipping with Coalitions for America, a conservative group. ”The president should go on national television and say, `My nominee will not be savaged like this anymore.` ”
But, he said, ”The White House is not the villain here.”
Thomas, who had not appeared in public since the controversy over the allegations erupted last weekend, met Bush briefly Wednesday afternoon and walked around the White House grounds on a pleasant fall day.
Bush reiterated his support for his beleagured nominee, saying, ”I`m staying right in there with him.”
Thomas tersely answered questions as he arrived at the White House, replying, ”Yup,” when asked if he would continue with the confirmation process and that he was feeling ”fine, thank you.”
Thomas will ”look the members of the committee in the eye and look the American people in the eye and say simply” that the allegations are not true, said his mentor and spokesman, Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), on ABC-TV`s ”Good Morning America.”
Hill has claimed that in the early 1980s, when Thomas was her boss at the Education Department and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he harassed her with descriptions of pornographic movies and sexual acts after she declined to date him.
The Washington Post reported that sources said Hill, in her affidavit to the FBI, said Thomas tried to discuss with her films showing women being raped or having sex with animals. Any detailed questioning along these lines raises the possibility that the hearing will take on such seamy overtones that Thomas may be tainted by simple association with the charges.
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), ranking Republican on the committee, said,
”The questioning of particularly Miss Hill will have to be handled with a certain amount of tact and delicacy,” according to his press secretary, Susan Pelter.
Tuesday night`s decision to delay for a week the vote on elevating the U.S. Court of Appeals judge to the Supreme Court temporarily relieved the tension and anger that had engulfed the Senate.
The thousands of telephone calls, many demanding to know why the Senate was not going to investigate Hill`s charges, eased. Most senators-except those who will be involved in the hearings-returned to their home states for the Columbus Day break.
The committee issued subpoenas Wednesday night to Hill and others whom Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) would not identify.
In addition to Hill and Thomas, committee aides said, other witnesses would be American University law professor Joel Paul and an unnamed Yale Law School classmate of Hill`s.
Paul said on a radio talk show Wednesday that in the summer of 1987, when Hill was doing research at American University, ”She told me in the course of a conversation that the reason she had left the EEOC was because she had been subjected to sexual harassment by her supervisor. And when I asked her why she did not take any action at that time, she said that I just couldn`t have imagined what the environment was like at the EEOC at the time, that a woman`s word would not have been taken seriously, and she had no recourse.”
American University law professor Judith Winston, who worked in the general counsel`s office at the Education Department when Thomas headed civil rights enforcement there, said Wednesday that Thomas ”acted in a very appropriate manner” and was ”very professional” in their dealings.
”He never said anything to me that would cause me to be uncomfortable,” she said, and she did not hear anything about him acting differently toward others.
Biden said no decision had been made about calling character witnesses.
He said he called Hill to explain to her the hearing process and advised her to obtain legal counsel to help her sit through the hours of testimony.
”If (Hill`s assertions) are true, it`s an incredible dramatic process for a woman to go through. I wanted to reassure her (about) the nature of the process,” Biden said.
”This is not going to be an easy hearing,” Biden said Tuesday night on the Senate floor.
”It is uncomfortable for everyone. But it must be done because we cannot fail to take seriously such a charge.”
